Maid to Order

Summary

I was not allowed
to go outside.I never went outside, not
even to dump the garbage.I was always
inside, I didn't even go to the market.I felt like I was in jail.It was
truly imprisonment.I was not allowed to
turn the radio on either.I could only
see the outside world when I hung clothes to dry.

I was afraid if I
ran away, I would be caught by the police. Madam often got angry with me,
complained to the agency, and the agency also got angry with me.The agent asked, "What do you want?" I said,
"I want to die, ma'am, because the people here are cruel, everything I do is
wrong, I'm always called idiot and stupid."

[It got so bad,] I
really didn't know what to do, so I drank poison for rats and cockroaches.I lost consciousness, and Madam brought me to
the hospital.

The police told me
it was wrong to try suicide. When the incident happened, I had been working
exactly seven months.I had earned S$90
[U.S.$53].

Between 1999 and 2005, at least 147 migrant domestic workers
died from workplace accidents or suicide, most by jumping or falling from
residential buildings. There is no single reason why domestic workers resort to
suicide, but research by Human Rights Watch suggests that many women are made
despondent by poor working conditions, anxiety about debts owed to employment
agencies, social isolation, and prolonged confinement indoors, sometimes for
weeks at a time.

As authorities have acknowledged, many of the deaths are
also due to workplace accidents. Several of the workers fell to their deaths
after their employers forced them to balance precariously, despite being many
stories up, to clean windows from the outside or to hang clothes to dry on
bamboo poles suspended from window sills.

While the deaths of migrant workers described above have
received increasing attention in the media and from policymakers, the context
in which they occur too often is overlooked. This report, which draws on
extensive research and more than one hundred interviews, surveys the abusive
conditions facing many domestic workers in Singapore today.

Many migrant domestic workers in Singapore face abysmally
long working hours, no weekly rest days, and low wages, areas neglected by
Singapore's laws and addressed primarily through non-binding information
guides. In many cases, migrant domestic workers in Singapore work thirteen to nineteen
hours a day, seven days a week, and are restricted from leaving the workplace.
They typically earn less than half the pay that workers earn in similar
occupations in Singapore-such
as gardening and cleaning-and are forced to relinquish the first four to ten
months of their salaries to repay employment agency fees. In the worst cases,
manipulated by agents or employers or both, migrant domestic workers suffer
under conditions amounting to forced labor.

Singaporean officials are now beginning to give these
problems serious attention. Authorities have imposed tough punishments on
employers who physically abuse or fail to pay their domestic workers. Although
increasing numbers of officials are turning their attention toward domestic
workers, the problems persist. And while Singapore's applicable laws and
regulations offer stronger protections than do those of neighboring countries
such as Malaysia, Singapore is still far behind Hong Kong, which includes
domestic workers in its main labor laws, protecting their rights to a weekly
rest day, a minimum wage, maternity leave, and public holidays. Employers in Hong Kong must also bear most recruitment and placement
fees, including the cost of visas, insurance, required medical exams, and round-trip
transportation from the worker's hometown.

The Singapore government to date has preferred to rely on
market forces rather than laws to regulate key labor issues for domestic
workers such as charges imposed by employment agencies, wages, and weekly rest
days. As a result, a migrant domestic worker's fate in Singapore is highly variable. She
may secure a good employer and labor agent, enjoy favorable working conditions,
and earn wages that she saves or regularly sends home. Or she may work for
months without pay to settle debts incurred from exorbitant recruitment fees,
labor for long hours seven days a week, and confront prohibitions from leaving
the workplace. Singaporean authorities need to do more-through legal reform,
enhanced public awareness campaigns, and more consistent law enforcement-to
ensure all workers are protected against abuses and can readily seek redress
when necessary.

***

Singapore,
a prosperous city-state in Southeast Asia,
attracts women migrant domestic workers from around the region. Approximately
150,000 women, primarily from Indonesia,
the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, hold work permits for two-year
employment stints in Singapore.
Approximately one in every seven Singaporean households employs a "live-in"
migrant domestic worker. The child care, domestic duties, and elder care these
women perform help free up Singaporean men and women to work outside of their
homes. The Singapore
government also views employment of foreign domestic workers as a strategy to
boost a below-replacement birthrate-domestic services ease the burden on
working women and Singaporean families who decide to rear children.

No data exists to calculate accurately the number of women
migrant domestic workers who confront labor rights and other human rights
violations. Many migrant domestic workers have positive experiences. Human
Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who received wages and rest days
regularly, enjoyed proper living accommodation, and developed close personal
ties with their employers. The Ministry of Manpower estimates that one in three
domestic workers renew their two-year contracts and continue to work under the
same employer.

A significant number of migrant domestic workers are not so
fortunate. Given their isolation in private homes, it is difficult to ascertain
the exact proportion of migrant domestic workers who face abuse. However,
domestic workers make thousands of complaints to their embassies, employment
agents, private service organizations, the Singapore Police, and the Ministry
of Manpower each year. The Indonesian embassy alone estimates that it receives
fifty complaints per day, mostly from domestic workers. The Philippines embassy and the Sri
Lanka High Commission estimate receiving between forty to eighty complaints from
domestic workers per month. Many abuses likely never are reported, especially
if an employer repatriates a domestic worker before she has a chance to seek
help.

The abuse often begins in domestic workers' home countries.
Recruitment practices and legislation vary greatly by country. The Philippines
has clearly defined policies on standard employment contracts and recruitment
fees. The employment contract provides for a day off each week and a monthly
minimum wage of S$350 [U.S.$206]. But many Filipinas come through unlicensed
agents or on tourist visas, making them subject to overcharging, poor working
conditions, and less access to redress. In Indonesia, domestic workers face
high fees from local labor agents, and are often confined in overcrowded,
locked training facilities for up to six months while waiting for placement
abroad. Many domestic workers report inadequate food and some confront physical
violence.

The different routes workers take in getting to Singapore
correlate with the conditions they are likely to face upon arrival. According
to embassy officials and Human Rights Watch's own research, workers placed
through unlicensed agents are more likely to have lower wages, no days off, and
illegal deployments to multiple homes. Several domestic workers from Indonesia,
for example, told us they were threatened with retaliation by employment agents
who told them they would be trafficked into forced prostitution or would have
to pay substantial fines if they did not complete their debt payments. Other
domestic workers reported that employment agents confiscated their passports and
any contact information in their possession, making it difficult to seek help.

In Singapore,
the government does not adequately regulate the fees, "private loans," and
salary deduction arrangements imposed by employment agencies on migrant
domestic workers. Intense competition among the more than six hundred
employment agencies has led them to reduce fees charged to employers, and to
shift the cost of recruitment, transportation, training, and placement to
domestic workers. Domestic workers who change employers pay extra fees for
transfer costs, sometimes extending their debts by months. Seeking employment
in Singapore
precisely because they are escaping poverty in their own countries, many women
must take on large debts which they settle by working for four to ten months
with little or no pay.

The Employment Agencies Act stipulates that employment
agencies cannot charge job seekers more than 10 percent of their first month's
earnings. Singapore's
Ministry of Manpower has argued that the charges to domestic workers are not
agency fees, but instead private loans that fall outside of the law's
parameters. This distinction for costs associated with recruitment, processing,
and placement with employers is arbitrary and unfairly strips migrant domestic
workers of important protections.Human
Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who said they stayed in situations of
abuse because of their debt obligations.

The Singapore
government has instituted several policies that exacerbate domestic workers'
isolation in homes and their risk of abuse. One is a S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950]
security bond imposed on employers who hire domestic workers. Employers forfeit
the bond if their domestic worker runs away or if they fail to pay for the
domestic worker's repatriation costs. The Singapore government enacted this
policy in an attempt to control illegal immigration and to ensure employers
have adequate funds to repatriate the workers on completion of their contracts.
Instead, the bond has become an incentive to employers to tightly restrict
their domestic workers' movements, prevent them from giving workers weekly rest
days, and sometimes to lock them in the workplace. Another policy ties migrant
domestic workers' work permits to particular families, giving employers
inordinate power. Under the existing system, employers may repatriate domestic
workers at will, even if they have not paid off their debts or earned any
income.

Singapore's
work permit regulations forbid migrant domestic workers from becoming pregnant,
restrict their marriage and reproductive rights, and provide further incentives
for employers to confine domestic workers to the workplace to prevent them from
"running away" or "having boyfriends." The prohibition on becoming pregnant has
also led to unequal access to health care services, including voluntary
abortions, as some employers, agents, and domestic workers believe that seeking
an abortion will result in automatic deportation.

Singapore,
in a stated attempt to regulate unskilled labor migration, also imposes a
monthly levy on employers of work permit holders-employers of domestic workers must
pay S$200-295 [U.S.$118-174] to a central government fund each month. This
amount is more than many employers pay to the domestic workers themselves.
Given 150,000 workers, this translates to roughly S$360-531 million
(U.S.$212-313 million) annually. None of these funds are earmarked for services
geared toward migrant workers.

In response to growing publicity and alarm over abuses
against migrant domestic workers, Singapore's Ministry of Manpower
has instituted some encouraging reforms in the past two years. These include
mandatory orientation programs for new employees and new employers, increased
commitment to prosecuting cases of unpaid wages and physical abuse, and the
introduction of an accreditation program for employment agencies. The ministry
also has published an information guide advising employers on proper treatment
of domestic workers and informing them of the penalties for physical assault
and forced confinement.

These initiatives, though important, do not go far enough. Singapore
needs to do more to address the underlying inequities and lack of protection
that result in widespread abuse. Singapore's Employment Act and
Workmen's Compensation Act should be amended to include domestic workers. These
laws guarantee weekly rest days, limitations on work hours, and regular payment
of wages and overtime. They also regulate salary deductions for debt payments
and address compensation for workplace injuries. Singapore also should institute
stronger mechanisms for inspecting workplaces and employment agencies. The
accreditation program, though a positive step, needs improved protections for
domestic workers' rights, including greater transparency about recruitment and
placement charges, and detailed provisions on working conditions such as weekly
rest days.

In a country well-known for strictly enforcing laws to
promote order and efficiency, the failure to provide adequate and equal
protection to an entire class of workers is an anomaly and undermines the rule
of law.

In cooperation with labor-sending countries and
international bodies such as the International Labor Organization, Singapore
should undertake immediate and effective reforms to end these abuses. Singapore
has a choice. It can become a standard-setter in the region for labor-receiving
countries. Or it can settle for second-best solutions that fail to address the
roots of abuses against migrant domestic workers.

This report is based on several months of research including
field research in Singapore
in February, March, and November 2005. Human Rights Watch conducted sixty-five
in-depth interviews with migrant domestic workers, reviewed the case files of
twenty-five migrant domestic workers, and held focus groups and informal
interviews with dozens more. These interviews took place at shelters and
skills-training programs; in parks, shopping centers, and places of worship on
domestic workers' days off; and at employment agencies. We also interviewed
more than fifty representatives from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower,
employment agents, employers, and private nongovernmental and faith-based
organizations. All names of domestic workers cited in this report have been
changed to protect their identity. Many employment agents and service providers
also spoke with us on condition of anonymity, and their names have also been
withheld.

This is Human Rights Watch's ninth report on abuses against
domestic workers, including both children and adults. We have also documented
abuses in El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia,
Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi
Arabia, Togo,
and the United States.

Establishing and periodically reviewing a national
minimum wage to address domestic workers' vulnerability to wage
exploitation. The National Wages Council should also investigate and
recommend policies that promote equal pay for equal work in the domestic
work sector.

Creating a standard contract that protects migrant
domestic workers' rights in accordance with national provisions in the
Employment Act and international labor standards.

Increasing enforcement of the Employment Agencies Act
to ensure compliance with caps on agency fees.

Implementing policies so that migrant domestic
workers do not spend several months working off their debts with little or
no pay, a situation that fosters a range of human rights abuses. The
government should look to the Philippines
and Hong Kong, who require employers to pay for round-trip airfare and
most expenses associated with recruitment and placement, including those
now covered by private loans in Singapore. The government
should consider adjusting the monthly levy to offset the cost to
employers.

Abolishing the S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950] security bond.

Prosecuting employers who confine domestic workers to
the workplace.

Permitting migrant domestic workers to reside in
independent living quarters.

Create and improve
mechanisms to prevent, monitor, and respond to abuse of migrant domestic
workers by:

Inspecting workplace conditions and employment
agencies regularly.

Withdrawing accreditation powers from the Association
of Employment Agencies in Singapore (AEAS) and CaseTrust and creating a
new accreditation body for employment agencies with more comprehensive
standards. The body should include representatives from employment
agencies, consumer rights organizations, domestic workers' rights
organizations, the Ministry of Manpower, and labor-sending countries.

Creating helpdesks at the airport and main police
stations with staff fluent in the primary languages spoken by migrant
workers. Improving training for the police and immigration authorities to
respond to abuse of migrant domestic workers.

Conducting exit interviews with domestic workers when
they are returning home to ensure they have been paid and to provide an
opportunity to report any abuse.

Sign and ratify the
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members
of Their Families (Migrant Workers Convention).

The
governments of Indonesia,
the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, and other sending countries
should:

Keeping a section of embassies and diplomatic
missions open on Sunday, the day many migrant workers have off, and
supporting skills training programs, and recreation and cultural centers
for domestic workers.

Establishing mechanisms for regular and independent
monitoring of labor agencies, including unannounced inspections.

Accreditation
bodies and employment agencies should:

Contribute to the
creation of safe and just working conditions for migrant domestic workers by:

Implementing a standard employment contract that
establishes detailed protections on wages, hours of work, weekly rest days,
salary deductions, and other terms of employment according to national
provisions in the Employment Act and international labor standards.

Creating recommended pay scales according to work
experience and other qualifications, such as education. Abolish
discriminatory policies that determine entry-level wages according to
nationality rather than work experience, education, or other relevant
criteria.

Reporting cases of employer abuse to the Ministry of
Manpower, the police, embassies, and accreditation bodies. Before placing
a replacement domestic worker with an employer accused of abuse, agencies
should exercise due diligence.

Background

Asian Women's Labor Migration

My parents had no
more work, they have no land.I went to Manila to find a job in
electronics.In the year 2000, the
electronics industry was affected.I
couldn't afford to give money to my family when I was working in the Philippines.I came to Singapore only to sacrifice for
them.

Increasingly mobile in the era of globalization and unable
to find adequate employment at home, millions of Asian women migrate for work.
Currently, the International Labor Organization estimates that twenty-two
million Asians work outside of their home country.[1]
Women comprised approximately half of all migrants worldwide for several
decades in the mid-1900s, but were generally a small proportion of migrant
workers.This pattern began shifting in
the late 1970s, most dramatically in Asia.[2] While
thousands of Asian women migrated annually in 1970, by 1995, this estimate had
risen to 800,000.[3] The
feminization of labor migration is particularly pronounced in the Philippines, Indonesia,
and Sri Lanka.
In these countries, national-level estimates indicate that women comprise 60-75
percent of legal migrants, a significant proportion of whom are employed as
domestic workers in the Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.[4]

For labor-sending countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines,
Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, and Thailand,
the "export" of labor has become an increasingly important strategy for
addressing unemployment, generating foreign exchange, and fostering economic
growth. Remittances to developing countries have grown steadily over the past
three decades, and migrant workers currently send about U.S.$100 billion a year
to their home countries. Economically developing countries in Asia
and the Western hemisphere receive the majority of these inflows.[5]
According to the International Monetary Fund, "For many developing economies,
remittances constitute the single largest source of foreign exchange, exceeding
export revenues, foreign direct investment (FDI), and other private capital
inflows."[6]

Remittances are now a top source of foreign exchange and a
key strategy for poverty reduction:Filipino
migrants sent U.S.$8 billion dollars home in 2004 and Indonesian migrants
U.S.$2 billion.Indonesia, along with many other
countries, includes targets for the numbers of workers it hopes to send abroad
in its five-year economic development plans.Indonesia's
targets have risen rapidly over time:in
the economic development plan for 1979-84, the target was 100,000 workers; in
the plan for 1999-2003, the target was 2.8 million workers.[7]

The most popular destination for Asian migrants has shifted
from the Middle East to other Asian countries
whose economies have boomed in recent decades.In 1990, for every migrant worker from Indonesia,
the Philippines, or Thailand employed in other parts of Asia, there
were three working in the Middle East.By 1997, destinations such as Malaysia, Singapore,
Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea had surpassed the countries of the Middle East.[8]These Asian destinations rely upon migrant
workers to fill labor shortages that arise when the domestic labor force cannot
meet the labor demands created by their fast-growing economies, or when their
citizens are unwilling to take low-paying, labor-intensive jobs with poor
working conditions.

Although Asian migrants include highly skilled professionals
in management and technology sectors, the vast majority are employed in poorly
regulated and hazardous sectors.Unable
to find adequate employment in their home countries and lured by promises of
higher wages abroad, migrants typically obtain jobs as laborers on plantations
and construction sites, workers in factories, and maids in private homes.Many of these jobs are temporary and
insecure-approximately two million Asian migrant workers each year have
short-term employment contracts.[9]

Although both sending and receiving countries have prospered
due to the labor and remittances supplied by migrant workers, they extend few
protections to migrants, who routinely confront a wide range of abuses.

Many Asian women migrants are domestic workers and are
particularly at risk of workplace abuse and exploitation because of the
isolated nature of their work and the lack of sufficient legal protection.Labor laws around the world usually exclude
domestic work from regulation or provide lesser protection, reflecting social
biases that allow discrimination and violence in the "private" sphere to escape
public regulation.[10]
Human rights violations against migrant domestic workers remain largely
invisible.

Abuses include long working hours, no days off, restrictions
on freedom of movement and association, lack of pay, and physical and sexual
abuse.Migrants have little access to
the justice system due to restrictions on their movement, lack of information
about their rights, and language barriers.Undocumented workers who have been abused fear approaching governments
as they face possible detention and deportation, and the likelihood of little
or no action on their complaints. Lack of protection for women migrants' human
rights also cultivates environments that can foster trafficking of women and
girls into forced labor and forced prostitution.[11]

Status of Women in Sending Countries

The status of women in Indonesia,
the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and India varies widely both within and
across countries. Despite the progress made for women's rights in recent
decades by legal reforms, improvements in girls' education, and greater
awareness of the imperative of state action to fight violence against women,
many forms of gender-based discrimination and violence continue to be serious
problems in each country.[12]
Governments have a mixed record in implementing women's rights protections, and
women seeking redress have often encountered chauvinistic attitudes and little
political will. Vibrant women's rights movements raise consciousness, provide
services, and lobby for reforms in all four nations.

Girls' education rates have dramatically increased, but
gender inequality still manifests itself in higher education, labor force
participation, and earning power. In Indonesia,
the Philippines, and Sri Lanka,
girls' rate of primary and secondary school enrollment is approximately equal
to boys. In India,
significant gender gaps remain with only sixty-five literate women for every
one hundred literate men.[13]In all four countries, approximately 40-55
percent of women are economically active, and they fall far behind men in
average earnings. The table on the next page lists the estimated average annual
earned income of men and women in each country, as well as the ratio of women's
to men's earnings.

The striking differences between men and women's income is
attributable to several factors, including the concentration of women in
low-paying, less regulated industries, and the fact that women confront social
and cultural barriers to entering male-dominated industries. Government and
private sector commitment to affordable child care, maternity benefits, sexual
harassment policies, and protections against gender discrimination in hiring
also affect women's labor force participation and earning power.

Women in Indonesia,
the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and
other sending countries seek employment overseas due to lack of employment
opportunities at home, the greater earning potential they may have abroad, and
the financial stress their households may be facing.Many Indonesian women sought work abroad
after the onset of the Asian financial crisis in 1997.[15]
Human Rights Watch interviewed a Sri Lankan woman who came to Singapore to earn money after her
son lost his house in the December 2004 tsunami.[16]

Many domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch
explicitly stated they had migrated to finance the education of their siblings
or children.For example, Ani Khadijah,
a thirty-four year-old Indonesian woman said, "My children wanted to continue
their studies.We didn't have
money.I didn't know I would have
problems working in Singapore."[17]
Others needed to repay loans for health care or business losses. Neerangini, an
Indian domestic worker said, "My son was in an accident.I needed money and borrowed Rp. 50,000
[U.S.$1,106].To pay them back, I came
here."[18]

Some of the women that Human Rights Watch interviewed had
also experienced abuses including domestic violence.One domestic worker said, "My experiences have
been bitter.Everyday my husband beat
me.Once he tried to kill me and my
mother.A lot of people in my village
insulted me, because I'm poor they called me a prostitute, that I go out and
sell my body.So I became bold to come
here to Singapore."[19]

Status of Women in Singapore

Singapore's
dramatic economic growth in the past few decades has led to improved standards
for women in many areas. Women's literacy increased by 46 percent from 1965 to
2000.[20]
In 2000, school enrollment rates were equal for male and female students ages
seven to sixteen[21]
and women constituted half of all university graduates.[22]In 2002, the government took further steps to
increase women's access to higher education by eliminating a quota on the
number of female medical students who can be admitted to the NationalUniversity.

Women in Singapore
enjoy good access to healthcare. Singapore's maternal mortality rate
is among the lowest in the world with an average of 6 deaths per 100,000 births
in the years spanning from 1985 to 2003.[23]Women have had the right to abortion since
1970. By law, women are able to terminate a pregnancy up to twenty-four weeks
of gestation.[24]
However, in 1987, the government introduced compulsory pre-abortion counseling
for women with at least a secondary school education and fewer than three
children.[25]

Women's representation in the workforce is relatively high,
with women making up 45 percent of professional and technical workers and 26
percent of administrators and managers.[26]
However, women hold few leadership positions in the private sector. While wages
for women range between 62 and 100 percent of men's depending on the
occupation, the gap has narrowed in recent years, with women earning more than
their male counterparts in some fields.[27]

Singapore
has made significant progress in improving women's status in society, but women
still confront inequality. Women's political participation remains low with
women holding 16 percent of the seats in parliament.[28]

Stark differences
exist in the status of foreign women living in Singapore compared to women
nationals. Many foreign women are domestic workers, whose status before the law
and whose working conditions is discussed below. Singapore
is also a destination for some women sex workers from China, Indonesia, and other Southeast
Asian countries. An unknown number may have been trafficked into forced
prostitution and other forms of forced labor.[29]

Migrants in Singapore

Approximately 25 percent of Singapore's 2.3 million strong
workforce is comprised of migrant workers.[30]
One hundred and fifty thousand of these migrants are women domestic workers
originating primarily from Indonesia,
the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
Smaller numbers of women also migrate from India,
Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand,
and Malaysia to Singapore
to become domestic workers.[31]
Approximately one in every seven households employs a migrant domestic worker,
including middle-class families. The Singapore
government does not release figures about the national breakdown of these
domestic workers, but verifies that the bulk migrate from the Philippines and Indonesia.[32] The
Philippines embassy
estimates that approximately 63,000 of its nationals are domestic workers in Singapore
and the Indonesian embassy, 60,000.[33]An official from the Sri Lankan High
Commission said, "Unofficially there are 13,000 Sri Lankan domestic
workers.Officially, MOM [Singapore's
Ministry of Manpower] doesn't reveal the number."[34]

Ever since Singapore
began rapidly industrializing in the late 1960s, migrant workers have been a
critical part of its economic development strategy. Attracting both highly
skilled and "unskilled" workers from the region, Singapore has relied on foreign
workers to meet labor demand. Singapore
has successfully re-engineered its economy to become a regional powerhouse for
high-end financial services and technology; its phenomenal economic growth in
the late 1970s and early 1980s was initially fueled by labor-intensive
manufacturing and electronics processing.

The combination of Singaporean women's increasing labor
force participation, a private sector that has failed to innovate
"family-friendly" working conditions, and few feasible child care options have
led to a strong demand for foreign domestic workers' labor.Domestic duties and child care remain
predominantly women's work. Domestic service has taken several forms since
colonial days.[35]
With industrialization, greater female labor force participation, and
increasing numbers of middle-class households seeking to contract out domestic
work, Singapore
introduced the Foreign Maid Scheme in 1978. This program opened the door for
women from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand,
Burma, Sri Lanka, India,
and Bangladesh to enter Singapore
as "live-in" domestic workers.[36]
The migrant domestic worker population grew from five thousand in 1978 to the
current level of 150,000.[37]

The treatment of women domestic workers has occasionally
sparked political and economic strife between Singapore and its neighbors. A
major political dispute erupted between the Philippines
and Singapore
when a Filipina domestic worker, Flor Contemplacin, was sentenced to death and
executed for murdering another Filipina domestic worker and a child in 1995.
The uproar led to the Philippines
temporarily suspending its workers from employment in Singapore and ignited debates about
migrant domestic workers' rights and working conditions. Economic ties suffered
as well-"Singaporean investments in the Philippines dropped from a record
U.S.$65 million in 1994 to U.S.$3.7 million by late 1995. Many Singaporean
executives based in the Philippines
left home after experiencing harassment from locals."[38]

In recent years, Indonesian migrant workers' groups have
protested vehemently against the deaths of Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore
and against application of the death penalty to Indonesian domestic workers
convicted of crimes. They have called for greater investigation into abuses and
working conditions that have contributed to or been responsible for these
deaths and crimes.[39]
In September 2005, two Indonesian domestic workers, Juminem and Siti Aminah,
facing possible death sentences for killing a Singapore employer, received a
life sentence and ten-year prison term, respectively. They were convicted of
"culpable homicide" (a lesser crime than murder) in recognition of employment
abuses and depression they suffered prior to the killing.[40]

Singapore's
strict enforcement of its immigration laws, in combination with its small size,
result in lower levels of irregular migration compared to other countries in
the region, for example, Malaysia.
In early 2005, Singapore
decreed that new migrant domestic workers must be twenty-three or older, an
attempt to make it more difficult for teenage girls (and in some cases even
younger children) to enter the country as workers with altered travel
documents. Though the number of domestic workers under age eighteen is
difficult to document, organizations that provide services to abused migrant
workers report relatively few cases involving child domestic workers. One of
the principal nongovernmental organizations working with migrants said, "We
have only had three cases of underage domestic workers."[41]

Pre-Departure Abuses

In the training
center, it was very bad.We received
rice once a day and in the morning bread.I was there for three months.There were over a hundred girls there.The gate was always locked.The
security guard had the key.If my
friends ran away, the rest of the girls received punishments.They wouldn't give us food for a day, or we
would have to do three or four hundred sit-ups.

I was so depressed.I wanted to give up, but I could not because
I have family problems.I was so tired
once [during training], I fell asleep.The staff woke me up and made me do two hundred sit-ups until I almost
fainted. Sometimes they used very harsh words, like, "If you're not successful,
you'll become a prostitute!"They used
all bad words.My passport was held by
my agent.They didn't explain the
employment contract, I just had to sign it.I did not receive a copy.I did
not know what was inside.

Prior to arrival in Singapore, many domestic workers
encounter violations of their rights during recruitment and placement with an
employer. Human Rights Watch interviewed women from the Philippines, Indonesia,
and Sri Lanka
who had suffered such abuses. Problems are especially rife in Indonesia, where thousands of
licensed and unlicensed labor agents operate with little monitoring from the
government. Abuses include deception about work conditions; forced confinement
in training centers; poor living conditions in training centers such as
overcrowding or inadequate food and water; and at times, beatings and sexual
harassment. A 2004 Human Rights Watch report, Help Wanted: Abuses against Female Migrant Domestic Workers in
Indonesia and Malaysia, describes pre-departure abuses in Indonesia in more detail.[42]

Labor agents often fail to provide prospective domestic
workers with complete information about their working conditions, immigration
requirements and fees, and their rights. The lack of information puts domestic
workers at risk of exploitation and abuse by unscrupulous agents and employers.
One domestic worker said, "I was offered a job in Singapore as a waitress.I am not sure what happened, they didn't send
me. It was only after I came to the training center that they told me my only
choice was to go to Singapore
[as a domestic worker]."[43]
Another domestic worker, Dwiyani, told us, "I had to sign a contract in
English.It was translated by my agent
in Bahasa Indonesia.I got no
copy.No one explained [where I could
turn for help if I had problems]."[44]
Some labor agents take money and contact information away from domestic
workers, stripping away the few resources they have to find help. Amina Hidayat
said, "If someone brought money, the agent would keep the money in the office,
and wouldn't give it back.Some agents
took phone numbers."[45]

Many Indonesian domestic workers endured overcrowded, locked
training centers, where they stayed for periods between one and eight months.
Eko Mardiyanto told Human Rights Watch that, "there were about one hundred
others.It was very crowded, we slept on
the floor.We were not allowed outside
of the training center, not even with permission.I was sad, I wanted to fly quickly."[46]
Another domestic worker said:

I was in the training center for three months.I didn't know [I would be there for that
long.]I thought it would be fast but it
took a long time.I wanted to go out,
but I was not allowed, we could not get permission.There were security guards.There were a hundred of us, we slept on the
floor.[47]

Triwulandari said, "Conditions were not so good.There was not enough food and not enough
sleep.We slept on the floor, with no
mattress and no pillow.We were not
allowed out, we had no permission.I was
sad, I wanted a good life."[48]
One agency kept a young woman in a training center for eight months after she
was diagnosed with worms and deemed unfit for deployment. She said, "There was
a very high wall, it seemed like a jail.It seemed like a mental hospital, sometimes I saw women crying,
laughing, or running here and there.Or
sitting like this, rocking back and forth.I felt stressed.I didn't want
to run away because I have a lot of loans to repay for my parents."[49]

Human Rights Watch interviewed many domestic workers who
likened the training centers to prisons and described other restrictions on
their freedom, including agents forcibly cutting their hair and taking away
prayer materials. One domestic worker, Anis Rukiyah, said, "The gate was locked
all the time.They would pass food
through the gate.There were guards day
and night."[50]
Another told Human Rights Watch:

There were 250 girls.We were not allowed outside.The
gates were locked and we could not go out, even with permission.There were security guards.Some women tried to run away.I felt like I was in prison.I used my same age, but a lot of my friends
changed their age on their passports.Some were under eighteen, they were going to Malaysia
and Singapore.We had a medical check, they checked our
body, urine, blood.I don't know what
they were checking.They cut my hair.I had no choice.I was quite sad, who likes to be forced?They said I could not pray, that I could not
fast during Ramadan.[51]

Domestic workers from Sri
Lanka and the Philippines tend to encounter
problems if they are recruited and placed by agencies operating illegally,
without licenses or accreditation. As a leader in the expatriate Sri Lankan
community said, "If you come through the right channels, there is not much
problem at all.If you bypass this, and
come through an [unlicensed] agent, the agent could be a crook.The agent promises this, promises that.[The agent may] bring them here, desert them,
and run away."[52]
An official with the Sri Lanka High Commission said that abusive recruitment
procedures could result in trafficking: "Others are brought on tourist visas
with return tickets.They are brought on
the pretext of working and lured into prostitution.We have to stop this.The emphasis should be on recruiting only
through accredited agents and inclusion in the Employment Act."[53]
Filipino diplomats said that "99 percent of complaints are from maids who
didn't pass through the POEA [Philippines Overseas Employment Administration]."[54]

Labor agents sometimes overcharge prospective domestic
workers. Domestic workers often have no other choice given they may already be
locked in a training center, have taken out large loans for the initial
payments, or have commitments to help ease the desperate poverty of their
families at home. Tuti Prihatin was cheated out of all her money by an agency
that had no real operations. She said, "The first agency I went to was a bluff
one.I was angry.I already had no money.The first agency I paid two million rupiah
[U.S.$198].The second agency I also
paid two million.My mother had to
borrow a lot of money to pay these fees. We paid one million [U.S.$99] for
transport."[55]

As is discussed in greater detail later in the report, many
domestic workers feel trapped in abusive employment situations as a result of
the large debts they must repay to labor agents, often six to eight months of
their salary. Some labor agents also threaten domestic workers if they fail to
repay these fees.Dewi Hariyanti, a
domestic worker told us:

I paid 500,000 rupiah [U.S.$46] and then they sent me to
the shelter [agency].The [agent] told
me it would be a seven-month deduction, but when I arrived, I found out it was
ten months.So I had no other choice but
to carry on.If we return [to Indonesia
early] we have to pay ten months salary.The agent in Malang
told me this.If we didn't pay, they
would abuse us and send us to Batam [an area notorious for sex
trafficking].A lot of friends [other
domestic workers] who are unsuccessful with their employers, they go to Batam
and face abuse from the agent.Some girls
got hit, they could not go out.[56]

She added that the agents would both intimidate women
individually and control them by threatening to punish their peers. She said,
"If we wanted to go back home, we had to pay the agents.Before we paid, we had to be punished and sit
out in the sun.The agents threatened us that, 'if you go to the police, we
will make it worse for your friends [still in the training center].' We had to
take care of our friends, so we had to keep quiet."[57]

Some domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said
agents told them or implied that if they did not repay debts or complete
two-year employment contracts, they could face large fines or be trafficked
into forced prostitution. One Indonesian domestic worker said that her labor
agent imparted the following message:

We must finish the contract.If we want to go home before two years, then
we would have to pay five million rupiah [U.S.$495].If the employer returns me to the agency and
they can't find another employer, then they will send me to Batam.We would be given work in Batam, I don't know
what type.I heard rumors, if sent to
Batam, they would make prostitutes out of girls like me, but I don't know if
it's true. That's what happens if we do not finish the contract.There is lots of pressure.

These threats prevent many domestic workers who confront
workplace abuse in Singapore
from seeking help because they fear the consequences if they do not finish
their two-year contracts. Aisyah Fatah said that in Singapore, her employer "threatened
often to send me back.I was not allowed
to talk to other people.If I was
caught, I could be sent back."[58]

Lack of information about pre-departure procedures, domestic
workers' rights, and options on where to seek help compounds these problems.
The level of government monitoring of recruiting agencies also affects the
likelihood of pre-departure abuses. The Philippines has the most developed
system for overseeing labor migration through the Philippines Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA). The diplomatic missions of the Philippines, Indonesia,
and Sri Lanka have
guidelines for accrediting employment agencies and issue standard employment
contracts, but these may have little binding power in Singapore and are difficult to
monitor and enforce. For example, employment agencies in Singapore that are not
accredited by the Philippines embassy still recruit and place Filipina domestic
workers.

Many sending countries have begun instituting pre-departure
orientation programs that, among others things, provide domestic workers with
information about their rights. These programs do not yet reach all migrant
domestic workers, and often reach them only after they have already endured
poor conditions and forced confinement in training centers. A Singaporean woman
who works with abused domestic workers said, "The pre-departure orientation is
important.Lots of problems could be
reduced if sending countries did their job. Slavery in the modern era, it
starts with girls themselves.Educating
them here [in Singapore]
is too late!"[59]
One domestic worker said she was much better able to negotiate her working
conditions the second time she migrated. She said:

I asked the agent to show me the contract and explain
it.Last time I was too stupid to say
no.Because we need money, our first
priority is to go to the country; we never think about [what is written in the
contract] here in Indonesia,
because of money.[60]

Immigration officials in sending countries may turn a blind
eye to irregularities in travel documents in exchange for bribes. Michelle
Udarbe, a Filipina domestic worker said:

I came on a tourist visa.Other girls tried, but they couldn't go because immigration caught
them.I was so scared because I'd never
gone out of the country. The agent told me to just try my luck.There was one lady working as a nursing aide
on the same flight.When I got to
Immigration the nursing aide told me to put money in my passport.I had 200 pesos only, but I made it through.[61]

An employment agent in Singapore told Human Rights Watch,
"I don't know how much.But I'm very
very sure that a certain amount [of the fee paid to labor agents in sending
countries] goes to immigration officials.In the Philippines,
the agents instruct the [women] to go to which [immigration] lane and that
official will have the names of the girls.It is very obvious." She added, "There was a time that Indonesia threatened not to send
domestic workers.I wasn't the least bit
worried, because I knew with the right amount of money, we could get around
it."[62]

Legal Framework for Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore

The primary sources of law regulating migrant domestic work
in Singapore
are the Employment of Foreign Workers Act and the Employment Agencies Act.
Foreign workers enter Singapore
through three types of work passes: an "employment pass" for professionals and
highly-skilled workers, an "S-pass" for middle-level workers such as
technicians, and a "work permit" for unskilled or semi-skilled workers,
including domestic workers. The Employment of Foreign Workers Act regulates
work permit holders and their employers, requiring them to abide by a set of
immigration and labor regulations. Singapore's main labor laws, the
Employment Act and the Workmen's Compensation Act, exclude domestic workers
from their protections, but apply to most other skilled and unskilled foreign
workers.

Singapore's regulations governing foreign domestic workers are stronger than those
of neighboring Malaysia,
where abuse is rampant, but far weaker than those of Hong Kong, the other major
Asian destination for migrant domestic workers (see appendix A for a copy of Hong Kong's standard employment contract).

Singapore has demonstrated concern about abuse of
migrant domestic workers and responded with reforms. Singapore amended its Penal Code in
1998 to increase by 1.5 times the penalties applied to employers convicted of
physical abuse, sexual abuse, or wrongful confinement of domestic workers. They
have also introduced an accreditation program for employment agencies,
orientation programs for new employers and new employees, and a new department
in the Ministry of Manpower focusing on the wellbeing of migrant workers. The
new Foreign Manpower Management Division (FMMD) has approximately one hundred
staff addressing labor policy, complaints, and management. As will be discussed
in a later section, the Singapore
government has demonstrated an increased commitment to investigating and
prosecuting cases of physical abuse and unpaid wages.

A distinct strength of Singapore's system is that most
policy authority related to migrant workers is concentrated in the Ministry of
Manpower.In other labor-receiving
countries, for example, Malaysia,
conflicting policies and poor coordination between the Ministry of Human
Resources and the Department of Immigration result in significant protection
gaps for abused migrant workers. Singapore's system does not always work
smoothly-one official from a sending country complained that within the
Ministry of Manpower, "the Labor Relations Department and Work Permit Department
don't correlate information" causing problems when employers wish to repatriate
their maids immediately and the embassy wants them to stay in the country to
pursue complaints.[63]

Exclusion
from Labor Laws

Despite the positive
reforms detailed above, Singapore
has failed to implement basic reforms critical for preventing and responding to
problems such as inhumane working hours, unconscionably low wages, lack of
weekly rest days, and unequal access to employment benefits.

As mentioned above, Singapore
excludes domestic workers from the Employment Act, which protects labor rights
such as a minimum of one rest day per week, a maximum of forty-four work hours
per week, limits on salary deductions, and fourteen days of paid sick leave.[64] Although domestic workers enter contractual
agreements in which they exchange services in return for compensation, the
Employment Act states:

"employee" means a person who has entered into or works
under a contract of service with an employerbut does not include any seaman, domestic worker, or any person
employed in a managerial, executive or confidential position.

"workman" means- (a) any person, skilled or unskilled,
who has entered into a contract of service with an employer in pursuance of
which he is engaged in manual labour, including any artisan or apprentice, but excluding any seaman or domestic
worker.[65]

Singapore's Workmen's Compensation Act similarly
excludes domestic workers from its provisions on compensation for workplace
injuries and occupational illnesses. Though it has yet to do so, Singapore
could extend equal employment protections to domestic workers easily under Part
VII of the Employment Act, which states:

67. The
Minister may, from time to time by notification in the Gazette, apply
all or any of the provisions of this Act with such modification as may be set
out in the notification to all domestic workers or to any group, class or
number of domestic workers and may make regulations to provide generally for
the engagement and working conditions of domestic workers.[66]

Singapore does not have a minimum wage, and this lack of
regulation has a particularly profound impact on migrant domestic workers, many
of whom have little ability to negotiate the terms of their employment. As will
be discussed in the section "Low and Unequal Wages," migrant domestic workers
earn a fraction of the wages of Singaporean workers in comparable occupations
such as gardening and cleaning. Industry standards assign different wages to
domestic workers according to their national origin, with an Indian domestic
worker often earning less than half the monthly wage of a Filipina domestic
worker.

Government officials expressed skepticism about regulating
domestic work with the standards applied to other sectors. One official asked,
"how to calculate [overtime] when workers never leave the employment place?"[67]
Officials from the Ministry of Manpower told Human Rights Watch, "Wages for
example, we leave to market forces.The
wages are low compared to U.S.
wages, but high compared to home countries."[68]

Singapore government officials also point to the
existence of the Employment of Foreign Workers Act and the Employment Agencies
Act, which do regulate the migrant domestic worker sector. The labor
regulations outlined in those laws and related regulations (particularly work
permit regulations), as discussed below, do not provide the same level of labor
protections accorded by the Employment Act and Workmen's Compensation Act. The
Employment of Foreign Workers Act primarily addresses issues related to work
permits, for example outlining a worker's duties after the loss of a work
permit and prohibiting employment without a valid work permit. This Act also
limits migrant workers' rights if the Controller of Work Permits changes the
conditions, or suspends or cancels work permits. In such situations, migrant
workers are prohibited from seeking any support from a trade union.[69]

The Singapore
government regulates employment agencies through the Employment Agencies Act.
The law regulates application, renewal, and revocation of licenses.[70]
Certain provisions protect the interests of clients, for example, an employment
agent's license may be revoked if he or she, "has carried on or is carrying on
an employment agency in a manner likely to be detrimental to the interests of
his clients."[71]
Other provisions proscribe overcharging, deception, and trafficking.[72]

The Employment Agencies Act stipulates that employment
agencies cannot charge job seekers more than 10 percent of their first month's
earnings-an amount ranging between S$20-40 [U.S.$12.50-25] for most migrant
domestic workers. This law also provides that agencies cannot charge employers
more than a S$5 [U.S.$3] registration fee and 80 percent of the worker's first
month's earnings. Singapore's
Ministry of Manpower has enforced this law for foreign professionals and other
skilled workers, but for foreign domestic workers has argued that the charges
imposed by employment agencies are not agency fees, but instead private loans
that fall outside of the law's parameters. This distinction for costs
associated with recruitment, airfare, and placement with employers is arbitrary
and unfairly strips migrant domestic workers of important protections.

Work Permit
Regulations

Work permit regulations under the Employment of Foreign
Workers Act provide labor protections, though these are not as comprehensive as
those in the Employment Act. Work permits for migrant domestic workers require
employers to commit to paying all wages due a worker before her repatriation,
keeping a written record of wages, providing acceptable accommodation and a
safe working environment, and providing prior notice of termination. The
employer must also agree to pay for repatriation costs of the worker, purchase
a minimum S$10,000 [U.S.$5,900][73]
personal injury insurance policy,allow
her to retain the original copy of her work permit, and to employ her only for
domestic duties in the household registered for the permit.[74]

The Controller of Work Permits issued revisions to the work
permit regulations in early 2005 that
introduced new protections: employers are now required to pay domestic workers
monthly, and the "employer shall ensure that the worker is not ill-treated,
exploited, wilfully neglected or endangered."[75]The regulations state that breach of
work permit conditions may result in prosecution, imprisonment for up to six
months, a maximum fine of S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950], revocation of the work permit,
and a prohibition from employing foreign domestic workers in the future.[76]

Domestic workers,
construction workers, restaurant workers, and other low-wage migrant workers
who enter Singapore
on work permits do not enjoy the same freedoms and protections as professional
and technical workers immigrating on work passes. The latter class of workers
may bring their immediate family, enjoy most of the same freedoms and
protections as Singaporean citizens, and can marry Singaporean citizens. Work
permit holders may not bring family members with them and are barred from
marrying Singaporeans. As discussed in more detail in the section, "Restrictions
on Reproductive and Marriage Rights," work permit conditions also prohibit
migrant domestic workers from becoming pregnant and from "breaking up families"
in Singapore.[77]

Work permit conditions
require employers to take out a S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950] security bond to guarantee
they will repatriate their domestic workers. The government justifies the
security bond as a mechanism for minimizing the numbers of migrant workers who
enter the country on work permits, run away from their jobs, and stay on in Singapore
illegally. Employers forfeit the bond if their domestic worker runs away or if
they fail to pay for the worker's repatriation according to their obligations
under work permit regulations. As will be discussed in the sections, "Lack of
Rest Days," and "Forced Confinement and Restricted Communication," the threat
of losing the security bond contributes to many employers denying domestic
workers rest days and to their tightly controlling and restricting the workers'
movements.

A domestic worker's
work permit is tied to her employer. Employers have the power to repatriate a
domestic worker at any time during the contract. They can also reject or
approve a domestic worker's wish to transfer employers in the middle or at the
end of a two-year contract. As will be discussed in later sections, these
policies foster a strong power imbalance, especially when domestic workers are
under financial stress to repay their debts or earn money in Singapore. They may fear to report
abuse as their employers can deny them transfers and repatriate them to their
home country.

The Singapore government collects
hundreds of millions of dollars annually by placing a monthly levy on employers
of work permit holders.It raises or
decreases the levy to regulate the number of migrant workers in the country and
to equalize wages between foreign workers and Singaporean workers.[78] In 2005, the government reduced the levy from
S$345 [U.S.$204] to S$295 [U.S.$174] per month per migrant domestic worker.
These adjustments were included in a package of "family friendly" policies to
help boost the national birthrate. Concessionary rates of S$200 [U.S.$118] are
available for some categories of employers.

The monthly levy
approximates and often exceeds the wages earned by the domestic worker herself.
Although the government does not release official figures, it receives between S$360-531
million [U.S.$212-313 million] annually from levy payments by employers of
migrant domestic workers. These funds go directly into a central government
fund and are not earmarked for programs geared toward migrant domestic workers.

Recent Initiatives

In the wake of publicity surrounding several abuse cases and
the rising death toll of migrant domestic workers falling to their deaths from
tall apartment buildings, the Ministry of Manpower introduced several new
initiatives in 2005. These policies aimed to improve the "quality" of foreign
domestic workers employed in Singapore,
to better regulate employment agencies, and to raise consciousness among
employers and domestic workers about rights and responsibilities.

The new requirements encourage the recruitment of older,
English-speaking, formally educated migrant domestic workers. These changes
respond in part to concerns that some domestic workers younger than eighteen
were entering the country with altered travel documents. Several abuse cases
involved young domestic workers who had little information about their rights,
and who had gone through employment agents that may have threatened and
intimidated them. The Ministry of Manpower changed the minimum age of
employment for a migrant domestic worker from eighteen to twenty-three. It also
now requires domestic workers to possess at least eight years of formal
education and to pass an English proficiency exam.

In order to raise awareness about safe working conditions
and legal obligations, the Ministry of Manpower has published a guide for
employers of migrant domestic workers.[79]
It has introduced two compulsory programs: an orientation for new employers,
and a safety awareness seminar for all new migrant domestic workers. Employers
can elect to complete the orientation program online, an option criticized by
migrants' rights advocates in Singapore.
A Human Rights Watch researcher observed an orientation session and one of the
employer seminars. In the orientation session, migrant domestic workers learned
about work permit conditions and the types of work that an employer can ask of
them. Much of the seminar for employers focused on safe workplace practices,
for example how to hang wet clothes outside windows or operate electrical
appliances. Employers learned about their legal obligations and acceptable
employment practices. The discussion focused on improving communication and
flexibility. Topics included explaining that employers cannot make deductions
from domestic workers' salaries as a punishment.

Another recent policy requires any employer who has cycled
through five domestic workers in one year to attend an orientation. In 2004,
the Ministry of Manpower said that approximately 3,000-4,500 employers change
more than four domestic workers in one year.[80]
According to a policy introduced in 2004:

MOM [Ministry of Manpower] recognises that frequent
changes of FDWs are often a reflection of the difficulty that an employer faces
in managing FDWs.Employers who change
their FDW for 4 times in a 1-year period are issued with advisory letters. At
the 5th change, employers are required to attend the Employers'
Orientation Programme (EOP) and go through a post-class session with the
trainer. At the 6th change, employers are required to attend an
interview with a MOM officer. If the pattern of changing FDWs continues
further, MOM would reject the employer's work permit application unless there
are satisfactory explanations.[81]

These interventions are not strong enough to curb abuse.
Waiting until an employer has employed five or six domestic workers within one
year means that the intervention may come too late for several workers. The
Ministry of Manpower's policy does not call for interviews with former or
current domestic workers who may be able to provide important information about
why they were dismissed or transferred.

Finally, in 2004, the Ministry of Manpower began requiring
that all new employment agencies and those seeking renewal of their licenses
must be accredited. The Ministry of Manpower designated two organizations as
accreditation bodies for employment agencies placing migrant domestic workers:
the Association of Employment Agencies in Singapore (AEAS), comprised of
employment agents, and CASETrust, a consumer rights group. Employment agencies
must have a minimum amount of financial reserves, keep records about domestic
worker placements available for inspection, and have protocols for handling
disputes. Both accrediting bodies have created sample employment contracts.
Provisions state the necessity of giving domestic workers adequate food, rest,
and lodging, but do not provide specific guidelines on maximum hours of work,
periods of continuous rest, or acceptable housing arrangements. At the time of
this writing, standard contracts promoted by these two accrediting bodies left
a blank for the number of rest days a domestic worker will receive per month.
In many cases, employers just fill in a zero. A provision effective in 2006
will require at least one day off per month for new contracts, but this may be
waived by offering extra compensation. The effectiveness of the accreditation
scheme is discussed later in this report.

Unjustifiable
Disparate Impact: Exclusion from Labor Protections

All persons are
equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law.

-Singapore Constitution, article 12(1)

Singapore's
Constitution and international law guarantee equality before the law and the
entitlement of all persons to equal protection of the law.[82]
When domestic workers in Singapore, a population comprised overwhelmingly of
foreign women, encounter exclusion from employment laws regulating working
conditions, they are experiencing a form of discrimination, though not
necessarily intentional, in violation of the national laws of Singapore. This
discrimination also violates rights articulated in international human rights
law.

Singapore
has committed to uphold human rights protections defined in the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).[83]Singapore
must ensure that domestic law and its enforcement comply with their
international obligations to protect the rights of women. Although Singapore
has not ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), or the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Migrant Workers Convention),
these are important sources of international law and human rights standards.[84]
Some of their provisions reflect a significant degree of international
consensus and evolving state practice. In this sense, they provide guidance on
how Singapore
might reformulate their legislation in respect to migrant domestic workers.

International law prohibits discrimination on the basis of
such distinctions as sex, national or social origin, or other status.[85]Article 3 of the ICESCR sets forth the equal
right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social, and cultural
rights in the covenant, which includes the right to just and favorable
conditions of work.[86]
These rights include "women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to
those enjoyed by men," and the right to "rest, leisure and reasonable
limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as
remuneration for public holidays."[87]

Singapore's
Employment Act and Workmen's Compensation Act exclude domestic workers from
many of the legal protections extended to other workers. These laws protect
other work permit holders, including migrants working in construction and
restaurants. The Employment of Foreign Workers Act and the Employment Agency
Act, which apply to domestic workers, do not provide the same level or
specificity of protection. These exclusions, while facially neutral in that
they focus on a form of employment, may not be discriminatory in intent but
have a disparate impact on women and foreigners since the overwhelming majority
of domestic workers in Singapore
are migrant women.The lesser protection
extended to domestic work reflects discrimination against a form of work
usually performed by women and that involves tasks associated with traditional
female domestic roles such as cleaning, child care, and cooking.

No legitimate reasons exist for these exclusions, meaning
that the unequal protection of domestic workers under Singapore law constitutes
impermissible disparate impact discrimination on the basis of sex and national
origin.[88] Arguments
that domestic work does not lend itself to regulations on working hours and
rest days do not address the need to protect domestic workers' right to health
and right to rest. These arguments, as well as fears that such regulations
would be difficult to enforce, can be addressed by encouraging the formation of
domestic workers' associations, creating accessible complaint mechanisms, and
learning from the experiences of governments that do extend labor protections
to domestic workers, including Hong Kong.

Agent Abuse and Negligence in Singapore

The agent in Singapore
was cruel.I had to take off all my
clothes and was totally nude.They were
checking to see if I had hidden money.I
was wearing a head scarf.They took it
and threw it away.They hit me and
kicked me with boots.They asked if I
brought anything from Indonesia.They took 50,000 rupiah I had.There were three other girls with me.This was happening in front of them.Only those of us from Indonesia experienced this
[treatment].I had bruises on my head
and arms.The employer found out when I
went to her home.She asked me to go to
the police.I said it didn't matter
because God will punish them.They were
Indonesian agents in Singapore
from my hometown.

More than one third of the migrant domestic workers
interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported abuse at the hands of employment
agents in Singapore.
Abuses included confiscation of passports, personal belongings, and religious
items; threats and physical abuse; illegal or dangerous employment assignments;
and refusal to remove women from abusive employment situations. As will be
discussed in later sections, agents may also saddle workers with large initial
loans and overcharge for transfer fees, and room and board, sinking domestic
workers deeper in debt, in a few cases placing them in situations akin to debt bondage.
One service provider said, "Agencies treat them likeyou are a maid, not a
person anymore.We know not all agencies
treat maids badly. The passport of the national is held by the employer and
agent.That is very wrong.[I know of one agency where] girls complain
that agents threaten, intimidate, and slap them."[89]

The displays of employment agencies in shopping centers
underscore the notion that domestic workers are goods to be sold, rather than
human beings requiring treatment with respect and dignity. During visits in
March and November 2005 to shopping centers such as Lucky Plaza, Katong, Bukit
Timah, People's Park Centre, and others, Human Rights Watch saw large signs
advertising "$88 dollar maids" [U.S.$52] and, in some cases, agency fees as low
as S$1 [U.S.$0.59]. Despite accreditation criteria for employment agencies
prohibiting them from keeping domestic workers in the storefronts as displays,
agents found other ways to "advertise" domestic workers to potential customers.
For example, in front of the Nation employment agency office in the Bukit Timah
shopping center, domestic workers wearing matching uniforms acted like moving
mannequins, miming washing windows, hanging clothes to dry, sweeping, and
bathing babies for nearby shoppers to view.

Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who
experienced abusive treatment from employment agents in Singapore upon arrival. Neerangini,
for example, was living with an agent who sent her for temporary cleaning
assignments. She said, "For minor things, if the saris were not put away right,
or not ironed, I got beaten..I was
beaten so I couldn't ever put on my own shirt.She would beat me with a metal ruler."[90]
Some agents took telephone numbers and other contact information from domestic
workers, stripping them of key information necessary to for seeking help. Dewi
Hariyanti said:

The labor agents searched our bodies.If they found letters or money, they took it,
we couldn't carry any addresses.They
took it and they burned it, including telephone numbers.From me they took letters, a dress, and
money.I hid money in my underwear and
they did not find it.They made me take off
my top in a room.[91]

Others described inadequate accommodations and insufficient
food. One domestic worker told us, "I arrived at the agency yesterday.I stayed on the floor with other domestic
helpers.The food was not enough.There was no breakfast, just bread and
water.There was no lunch."[92]
Another said, "I spent one night in the agency. They didn't give me anything to
eat for the night.I was alone, I slept
on the kitchen floor.I had no blankets,
no mattress."[93]

Agents may also place domestic workers in employment
situations different from those to which they had originally agreed. Ani
Khadijah, a domestic worker, told us, "It was a surprise when the manager told
me the names of my employers.I was
asking why-I was supposed to take care of an old lady, but instead I was taking
care of a small baby."[94]
Adelyn Malana, a Filipina domestic worker signed a contract for a monthly
salary of S$350 [U.S.$206] with a weekly rest day. When she arrived in Singapore,
the agency told her that her salary would be "S$320 [U.S.$189] with an off day
and S$350 with no off day."[95]
Neerangini, an Indian domestic worker told us her agent, "would send us out to
clean for S$10 [U.S.$6] per hour. The $50 [U.S.$30] would go to the madam, not
me....There were six or seven of usIt
was the same thing, she sent them out to work."[96]

Employment agents sometimes place migrant domestic workers
with employers they know to be abusive. Singapore's regulation that
employers can cycle through five domestic workers before they are subject to
review endangers the well-being of domestic workers. Sometimes a second or
third-round match is made in the name of finding a better fit, but many times
agents are also aware that an employer has unreasonable expectations or does
not treat domestic workers well. Despite this knowledge, agents prioritize
keeping employers as clientele over ensuring that they place a domestic worker
in a safe and fair working environment. As one labor agent told us:

This month, we had one transfer maid.The problem is probably with the
employer.The employer is quite fussy,
and has changed four domestic workers in one year.We will find a replacement for both the maid
and the employer.We offer a three-month
guarantee.[97]

Aisyah Fatah, whose employers forced her to operate a
commercial laundry service, was confined to the house, and worked nineteen
hours a day, said that when she escaped, the agent simply put another domestic
worker in her place. She said, "They sent a Filipina after me, from this
agency.They sent two Indonesians before
me, no one lasts for long."[98]

Several agents told Human Rights Watch they use the excuse that
business is bad if they feel they can no longer supply a domestic worker to a
particular employer. But they did not report or blacklist such employers, who
were then free to hire a maid from another employment agency.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than thirty domestic
workers who had negative experiences seeking assistance from their agent after
facing abuse from employers. In many instances, the first person that an abused
domestic worker will turn to is her employment agent. This agent may be the
only person she knows in Singapore.
After being physically abused by her employer, a domestic worker told us:

The employer brought me to the agent.The agent said, "why don't you know how to
work?You are old, you have kids."He slapped me.Three times. I just cried. There was nowhere
to complain.[99]

A social worker who has worked on dozens of migrant worker
abuse cases said, "The agency chooses not to believe the maid.They are always afraid of losing customers."[100]
Muriyani Suharti, a domestic worker who had been raped repeatedly by her
employer, said:

The agency didn't believe me.They said, "if it's true that he forced you,
why did it happen so many times?"It
happened because I was afraid. After that I spent one month at the agency,
working part-time for no pay.I told the
agent, I want to go back to Indonesia.They told me if I wanted to go I had to pay
all the expenses.[101]

Some domestic workers are afraid to report problems to their
employment agents because of threats, outstanding debts, or poor treatment
during other interactions. One domestic worker, Adelyn Malana, explained, "When
I ran away I came here [to a private shelter] because my agent was not good.
The agent is very angry with me because I came [here.]I think she would have sent me back to my
employer."[102]
Kanthi Unisa, a domestic worker who escaped from her place of employment after
experiencing horrific working conditions said, "There was nobody I could talk
to.I talked to the agency, but they did
not help me.The agency believed the
employer.[The agent said] "If you
don't want to work, I can't do anything for you.You cut your visa and go back."That is why I don't talk to my agency."[103]

Workplace Abuses in Singapore

It is
$588 [U.S.$347] for an Indonesian, $598 [U.S.$353] for a Filipina.You want a Filipina because she speaks
English.For Filipinas there is usually
a six, seven month salary deduction [debt payment], for Indonesians there is
eight months deduction.Filipinas need a
day off once a month, Indonesians don't need a day off.The salary for Filipinas is S$320 [U.S.$189]
per month, for Indonesians, 280 [U.S.$165] per month.You get one replacement free, three months
for a Filipina, six months for an Indonesian.

-Employment agent explaining the packages available
to prospective employers, Singapore,
March 5, 2005

Deaths

Another foreign domestic worker fell from
the fourth storey while hanging out the laundry on Tuesday. She was taken to
the Changi GeneralHospital. A hospital
spokesman said she was still in intensive care but was "stable and conscious."
The maid, an Indonesian in her 30s, was said to have fallen head first out of
her employer's Tampines flat around 6:40 a.m.

-"Two fell this
week," The New Paper,February 20, 2004

Between
1999 and 2005, at least 147 migrant domestic workers died from workplace
accidents or suicide, most by jumping or falling from residential buildings. Of
these, 122 were Indonesian domestic workers who jumped or fell to their deaths.[104] One Sri Lankan domestic worker jumped to
her death in September 2005.[105] Information provided by the Philippines
embassy did not specify whether any deaths of Filipina domestic workers were
due to falling from a height, but noted that between 2001 and 2005, fifteen
Filipina domestic workers died from workplace accidents and nine from suicide.[106]

Although
there are no directly comparable statistics, the Indonesian consulate in Hong
Kong reported that thirty-two domestic workers died in Hong
Kong between 2003 and June 2005 for reasons including illness,
accidents, and suicides. Of these, they classified seventeen as suicides.[107] In the same period, forty-three Indonesian
domestic workers in Singapore
died by falling from buildings. These differences are particularly striking
given Singapore employs approximately
60,000 Indonesian domestic workers while Hong Kong
employs more than 90,000 Indonesian domestic workers.[108]

Interviews
with government officials, embassy officials, aid organizations, domestic
workers, and employment agents suggest that causes of these falls likely
include suicide and hazardous workplace conditions. Isolation at the workplace,
excessive work demands, employer abuse, and financial pressures are all factors
that may contribute to anxiety and depression. Human Rights Watch interviewed a
domestic worker who had attempted suicide after suffering poor working
conditions and feeling she had no alternatives for escape. She said:

I was afraid if
I ran away, I would be caught by the police. Madam often got angry with me,
complained to the agency, and the agency also got angry with me.The agent asked "What do you want?" I said,
"I want to die, ma'am, because the people here are cruel, everything I do is
wrong, I'm always called idiot and stupid."

[It got so bad,]
I really didn't know what to do, so I drank poison for rats and
cockroaches.I lost consciousness, and
Madam brought me to the hospital.

The police told
me it was wrong to try suicide. When the incident happened, I had been working
exactly seven months.I had earned S$90
[U.S.$53].[109]

In
the case of the Sri Lankan domestic worker who fell to her death, a
spokesperson from the High Commission said, "The case is still an open verdict.
But apparently she had kept a diary and she was very unhappy with her work
conditions."[110]

The
threat of repatriation before they repay their debts or earn adequate money to
support their families may also fuel panic and anxiety among domestic workers.
In one domestic worker's case seen by a service organization, "The employer
wanted to send her home.She took a
knife to herself [attempted suicide] because she wanted to finish her
[two-year] contract.She didn't want to
go back to the agent.She had worked for
one year and five months.In the end,
she returned to the agent."[111]

Hazardous
workplace conditions include being forced to clean the outside of windows from
precarious ledges or to hang wet clothes from bamboo poles out of high windows
from unsafe positions. An official from the Sri Lankan High Commission
described one case in which a domestic worker was injured but did not die: "One
girl fell over, about three years ago.She stood on the kitchen ledge.She slipped and fell four floors.Employers scream if windows are not shining.She was in the hospital for two months."[112] Ministry of Manpower officials told us that
when they receive news of a fall, a "team goes to investigate cases.In one case a FDW [foreign domestic worker]
fell to death while hanging clothes.The
employer was responsible for endangering the safety of the FDW.It was in an area not meant for public
access-a ledge with a low parapet."[113]

In
an interview with Human Rights Watch, Ministry of Manpower representatives
discussed the government's assessment of the cause of the deaths and their
strategies for overcoming these problems:

There are two
main causes.The first is safety.We are implementing a massive exercise,
telling employers, "you are responsible for the safety of domestic workers,"
through education, pamphlets.The
second is that FDWs [foreign domestic workers] commit suicide.We are teaching employers and educating EAs
[employment agents] the signs to look for.[114]

The
results of investigations into a domestic worker's death or fall, and the
ensuing classification of the incident as an accident or suicide carry
consequences for a domestic worker's family. Compensation for falls deemed to
be accidents may result in payments up to S$10,000 [U.S.$5,900] under the
personal injury insurance that employers are required to buy for domestic
workers. No compensation is offered in cases of suicide, and as the woman
quoted above suggests, women who attempt suicide face possible criminal
prosecution.

These
cases are often difficult to investigate because the worker may have been home
alone at the time of the fall, or there are no witnesses to corroborate or
contradict employers' versions of events. An employment agent told us about a
case in which one of the domestic workers she had placed died.She said, "I had a death.She fell from the twenty-second floor, she
just flew off the window.She was very
young, sweet."[115] The investigation did not produce
conclusive results on the cause of death, and at the time of the interview, the
family had received no compensation.

In
another case, a domestic worker suffered extreme financial hardship as a result
of her fall. She fell three stories when hanging laundry, incurring spinal
injuries and several broken bones. She was not able to walk ten months after
the accident. Although the personal injury insurance paid for her initial
hospital bill, her family has had to pay for subsequent medical care.[116]

Forced Confinement, Unpaid Wages, and
Exorbitant Debt Payments

Forced Confinement and Restricted Communication

The house was locked.I stayed in the house always.I was worried, if there is a fire, I don't
have the key.What should I do, jump
from the window?....My employer didn't
know I had a handphone, I always hid it in my clothing.She threw all my numbers, addresses in the
garbage, my notebook.She tore it and threw
it away.At my employer's house, I
couldn't talk [covers her mouth].

Human Rights Watch
interviewed twenty-nine domestic workers who had been forbidden from leaving
their apartments alone and who had limited opportunity to use the phone, speak
to neighbors, or even write letters. One woman, Kartini Saptono, told us:"I can write letters but I can't make phone
calls, I have to do it in secret.I'm
not allowed to have a boyfriend.My
employer wouldn't like it, she would send me back to Indonesia."[117]

The S$5,000
[U.S.$2,950] security bond paid by employers of foreign domestic workers to the
government, in combination with employers' fears of domestic workers running
away, meeting boyfriends, becoming pregnant, or stealing household items
contributes to many employers placing tight restrictions on their maid's
mobility and communication with others.[118]

The vast majority
of migrant domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch did not hold
their own passports or even know where it was. Others did not keep their work
permits in their own possession, in violation of immigration regulations.
Typically, an employment agent might take a worker's passport from her at the
airport, use it to collect the work permit, and then either keep it or pass it
to the worker's employer directly. Although employers and agents often say they
are retaining the passport for safekeeping, domestic workers sometimes are not
able to obtain their passport, work permit, or other important documents even
on request-further restricting their freedom of movement.

As with the other
abuses documented here, confiscation of passports and work authorization
documents compounds restrictions on workers' movements.One domestic worker said, "They said I can't
talk to others.I was not allowed to
speak with other people or speak in Bahasa Indonesia. My employers held my
passport and work permit."[119]Milagros Baluyot, a Filipina domestic worker told us, "I should be able
to keep my passport, but he [my employer] took it from me because he said he
cannot trust me.He even has my work
permit."[120] When an employer holds a domestic worker's
work permit, he or she violates the work permit regulations and is subject to
penalties and prosecution.

Many domestic
workers are forbidden from leaving the workplace unless they are in the company
of their employer or, for those who are so lucky, on days off. Some domestic
workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported being locked in their
workplace from the outside. More commonly, domestic workers reported that their
employers discouraged or prohibited them from talking to neighbors, other
domestic workers, or to friends on the phone. Many employment agents and
employers justified these practices.One
agent said, "Poor people can abuse the employer.The employer puts up the security bond.If the maid runs away or does some nasty
thing, the employer loses a lot of money."[121] As Lilia Jornadal said, "I was not allowed
to go out, or to talk to the neighbors.They didn't want me to talk to other maids."[122]

Agents and
employers often prohibit or discourage domestic workers from developing
friendships with neighbors or other migrant workers, regardless of whether
these relationships are formed during working hours or not.One agent explained, "I'm against maids
having friends.When they go down to the
playground, they talk.An employer
doesn't want her maid to have friends, they leave their house to the maid, they
don't know if the friends are good or bad.They leave their small babies with them."[123]

Underlying these
tight restrictions on freedom of movement and association is a lack of trust as
well as an attitude that infantilizes grown women. In one case, Tirtawati, a
thirty-year-old domestic worker said, "My employers sent the children to
school.They didn't trust me to take the
child.They locked the gate when they
left."[124] Employers expressed doubt about the ability
of their maids to make good decisions regarding making friends, having a
boyfriend, or saving money. A man working for a company providing insurance to
employers of domestic workers protested against the restrictions on domestic
workers' movements, saying:

In my opinion we
are all human beings.To leave the
house, it is a basic human need.There
is not a single case where it should be a problem.[If she becomes pregnant,] you send her home
or get an abortion.It is a dumb excuse
to keep maids in because of that, or to lock them in the house.I know one Sri Lankan's employer padlocked
food in the house, and she could not go out of the house, until the neighbors
complained.[125]

Another agent
conceded that employers sometimes resort to extreme confinement measures:"Some employers take it too harshly.The [maid] can't look out of the window.It gets absurd. They assume she is planning suicide."[126]

Almost all of the
domestic workers that Human Rights Watch interviewed were required to obtain
permission to leave the household where they worked. Many domestic workers were
not allowed out of the apartment unless they were in the company of their
employer, even to go to the market.Some
employers locked the phone so domestic workers could not use it during the day.[127] Despite having worked in Singapore for several years, a
forty-two-year-old domestic worker said, "Monday through Saturday, [when my
employers are at work,] I cannot go to the market, just downstairs.If we are all together, they let me take a
walk with them. If they are at home, I cannot come down even if my work is
finished.[128]

In other
situations, employers deny domestic workers their right to leave their
jobs.Human Rights Watch interviewed
several women who wanted to return home or to change employers but were unable
to because their employers forbade them from contacting their agent, withheld
their salary, or restricted their movements and communication.In some circumstances described in this
report these situations may amount to forced labor. One woman said:

After my mother
passed away, I asked for money [from my savings] for the funeral.The employer kept saying the money is safe in
the bank, why are you asking?I said if
you don't want to pay my salary, I want to go back.My mother passed away, I wanted to go back.My employer scolded me, "Your mother already
died.She is already in the graveyard,
why do you want to go back?"[129]

We interviewed
Adelyn Malana, a twenty-two-year-old Filipina domestic worker awaiting a
transfer so she could continue paying off her debt before returning home.She said:

I said I'm not
happy.I'm not happy in this house, I
want to go back to my agent.My employer
said no.I cried.I wanted to work, but this situation was not
good.Every day there was no change, so
I asked her, can you send me back?....She didn't want me to change [employers], she would get very
angry.I want to work, pay my debts and
earn enough to go home.[130]

Faith-based
organizations and other service-providers also reported handling several
complaints of virtual imprisonment in the home.One service provider told us:

We know girls in
need of help, they can't come out [of the workplace] . They call seeking help,
sometimes through writing.They are so
controlled in their moves.They contact
us be it through letters, neighbors, whatever channels they can.[131]

In a case similar
to others documented by Human Rights Watch, Ani Khadijah said, "They would lock
me inside the house with the baby.I was
not allowed to make phone calls or send letters to my family.I wasn't allowed to say anything or talk to
the neighbors, I had to just keep quiet."[132]

One domestic
worker's employer repeatedly threatened to repatriate her if she talked to the
neighbors or left the apartment. The consequences for domestic workers who defy
their employers' restrictions may be swift. After working for four months, and
hungry from a lack of food, one domestic worker forbidden from leaving the
workplace ventured to a nearby store after receiving money for the first time,
a gift from a neighbor during the Chinese New Year. She said her trip to the
store "is the reason my employer returned me to the agency.I had gone to buy coffee and bread."[133]

In the most severe
cases, domestic workers likened their confinement to the workplace as
imprisonment.Sri Mulyani, a
thirty-year-old Indonesian domestic worker, described her experience with an
employer for whom she had worked for three years:

I was not
allowed to go outside.I never went
outside, not even to dump the garbage.I
was always inside, I didn't even go to the market.I felt like I was in jail.It was truly imprisonment.I was not allowed to turn the radio on
either.I could only see the outside
world when I hung clothes to dry.My
employer said, "Don't speak to anyone.Don't speak to friends or to the neighbors."I wasn't allowed to contact my relatives. I
worked for three years.I had nobody to
talk to.

I asked my
employers if I could return to Indonesia,
and they said no.I was not happy or
comfortable, and I wanted to go back.They said, "you have to finish your contract.You have to make sure you finish your
contract before you go back.".[Even]
if I needed a panty liner, one of the children would be sent down to buy it for
me.[134]

One domestic worker
who suffered sexual harassment was locked inside her employer's compound for
the first three months of employment. She said, "My employer asked me to
massage him. He hugged me. I was shocked because he was my employer.I wanted to leave, but the gate was
locked.[After three months], they gave
me the key.That is when I ran away."[135]

In another case,
Human Rights Watch interviewed Eri Sudewo, a domestic worker who had not been
outside in two years and was almost skeletal from lack of food.She had recently been rescued after tossing a
letter pleading for help to a neighboring domestic worker who sought the
intervention of an aid organization, the Ministry of Manpower, and the
police.Sudewo was elated to contact her
family for the first time, to visit a Singaporean market for the first time,
and to speak with other Indonesians.She
recounted how she felt like she was going insane due to the isolation, yet did
not know where to turn for help.She
said:

The outside door
was locked.All the doors were locked,
only the bathroom was open.The kitchen
was locked.For one day, one week at a
time, I would never eat anything.I was
hungry, what could I do?...I had no day
off, I never went outside.When the
Filipina maid went outside to throw the rubbish, she would tell me [through the
window], you must run, if you stay, you will die.[136]

Some domestic
workers reported having to arrange their work duties at inconvenient times in
order to avoid meeting neighbors.For
example, one domestic worker said, "I had to clean the car.The first day the son tells me to clean the
car at 7 a.m.The mom says no because it is too early, she
is afraid I will talk to my friends.So
I had to clean the car at 11:30 a.m.
when it is very hot."[137]Other employers imposed strict time constraints. A domestic worker told
Human Rights Watch, "If I left the flat to throw out the trash, I had to return
in exactly three minutes."[138]In
one case, employers restricted the movements of their domestic workers in
response to their own failure to pay the monthly levy. Anis Rukiyah said,
"After MOM [the Ministry of Manpower] sent the letter about the employer
failing to pay the levy, my employers asked me never to go anywhere.If I answered the phone, the employer got
angry."[139]

Many domestic
workers resorted to ingenious methods to stay in touch with the outside
world.This included keeping handphones
hidden from employers or dropping letters out of the window for neighbors to
pick up.For example, Endang Utari, a
thirty-one-year-old domestic worker said, "My employer thinks Indonesians are
very stupid.She didn't believe anything
I said.I could not go out of the house
and buy groceries.She called her
daughters to buy food.Once a month
during menstruation, I would need a pad, I could bring amma [the employer's
mother] and go to the market.I have a
handphone.Two years ago I bought
it.I kept it in my bed.I asked my friend to buy the top up
card.I kept it hidden from my
employer.I wrote a letter and threw it
[to my friend]."[140]

Many employers and
agents claim that domestic workers do not wish to leave their workplaces because
Singapore
is an unfamiliar country, or they are comfortable at home. Many domestic
workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch spoke about their strong desire to
have more freedom.One domestic worker
said, "They should give us time to write letters, and have contact with our
families because we are homesick."[141]Another domestic worker commented, "I need more freedom.I want to be able to talk to my friends and
not just on my off days."[142]

Unpaid Wages

I was supposed to get paid S$230 per
month.I was never given any
salary.I came on February 7, 2003.When I asked for my salary, they asked "why?"I said, "I want to send it to my father."I waited, I waited, I waited.I don't want to ask anymore.She said, "Don't worry, I will give it to you
when you leave.If you want anything,
soap, biscuits, I will buy it for you."

─Bayuningsih
(not her real name), Indonesian domestic worker who escaped after two years
employment without pay, age twenty-three, Singapore, March 4, 2005

Failure to receive
full and regular payment of wages is one of the most common complaints handled
by the Ministry of Manpower and other aid organizations that assist domestic
workers.[143] As one domestic worker, Eko Mardiyanto,
said, "Sometimes my employer doesn't pay my salary, I have to ask for it.Sometimes she pays me every five months,
sometimes every month."[144]Another domestic worker said, "I have been working for two years, and
have no money.I only have S$20
[U.S.$12], no money, how come?....Every
night I cannot sleep.I have no
money.I am awake trying to think of who
can help me."[145]

In one case, a
Bangladeshi domestic worker, Chandrika Das, did not receive wages for almost
eight years. When she tried to claim her wages upon departure, her employer
told her, "I've done a lot for you.Because of me, you got to breathe the air in Singapore.I gave you a luxurious life.Whatever we have done for you is enough."[146] After mediation through the Ministry of
Manpower, she received a partial settlement of S$3,280 [U.S.$1,935] as payment
for twenty months. As one migrant worker's advocate noted: "She was owed
S$20,000 and settled for S$3,000,"[147] approximately S$1 [U.S.$0.59] for each day
of work over eight years. Das returned to Bangladesh, but may return to seek
the rest of her salary.[148] In another case of unpaid wages, an
underage domestic worker was not paid for four years.When the worker approached her embassy for
help, they calculated that she was owed S$10,000 [U.S.$5,900] in back wages.[149]

Domestic workers
have little negotiating ability when they sign contracts for overseas
employment.During their first two-year
contract, the labor agent typically sets the salary.Although many domestic workers sign a
contract before beginning work, almost none retain their own copies, and many
are vague about the terms and conditions of employment.Human Rights Watch interviewed Julie Panada,
a newly-arrived domestic worker from the Philippines who did not know the
salary she would receive once she finished paying her debts.She said, "I don't know my salary yetI got
here yesterday."[150]Even
when they do have certain wage expectations, once they arrive in Singapore,
at the mercy of an employer who can repatriate them at whim, many accept the
salaries given to them, even if it is lower than what they had agreed to.
Lalitha Ranjanie, a Sri Lankan domestic worker said, "My salary is low-200
dollars.[At the embassy they told me]
it would be 250.I never received a
contract."[151]

Domestic workers
often have little control over their wages.Employers may say that they are depositing money in the bank, but the
domestic worker often has no independent access or records of the account.Similarly, some employers say they are wiring
money to the domestic worker's family without actually doing so. A
thirty-year-old domestic worker said:

I never received
any salary.My employers said they were
putting money in the bank.Actually
there was no bank account in my name.I
worked for them for twelve months, I wanted to go home.The employer got upset because I kept on
asking about my salary.

My employer was
angry with me.They didn't pay my ticket
back to Indonesia.My employer said, "Sri, time for you to go
home, but I have no money to send you.I
will work here and send it to you later."They chased me out.On 14 January
[2005], they forced me out of the house.[152]

As in the case
above, some employers fail not only to pay the required wages regularly, but
also evade their obligations under Singaporean regulations to pay for the
domestic worker's return trip home or paid leave to her country at least once
every two years.Many employers shirk
their obligation by purchasing cheap ferry tickets to nearby Batam or to
capital cities like Manila or Colombo, instead of buying the complete fare
to a domestic worker's hometown.Domestic workers who have finished their contracts and are repatriated
then have few options for seeking redress.One employer, in addition to withholding three months of salary,
improperly charged her twenty-two-year-old Indonesian domestic worker S$400
[U.S.$236] for food and for her return fare.One domestic worker, Dita Wulansih, told Human Rights Watch:

I said to my
employer, "Okay, buy a ticket to Jakarta,"
because I am from Jakarta.She said she bought a ticket to Batam.I said, "Mom, I don't have family in Batam."
She said, "I don't care about you."I
spent a whole month's salary trying to leave Batam [and return to Singapore
to make a complaint.][153]

An official from
the Sri Lankan High Commission gave an example of a complaint received the day
of the interview: "I just received a call from a woman who didn't get two
months salary..She is underpaid, they
owe her S$500 [U.S.$295].They did not
give her a return ticket. Roughly on a monthly basis, we have five to eight
cases of unpaid wages."[154]

Some employers cut
the salaries of their domestic workers, charging them for perceived mistakes or
damages sustained during the course of housework, or simply as a form of
control.The practice of deducting
domestic workers' salaries for such costs is illegal. Lilia Jornadal, a
domestic worker employed in Singapore
for more than one year, said, "The first five months my salary went to my
agent.Then I got it only every two
months.If I didn't ask for it, they
wouldn't give it. The punishment for one mistake would be S$1 [U.S.$0.59].They were often cutting forty or fifty [Singapore]
dollars per month [U.S.$24-30].I didn't
have a choice.I had to accept it."[155] Cynthia Suarez, another domestic worker,
despite having worked in Singapore
for several years, said, "If I don't answer the phone, the employer deducts S$5
[U.S.$3] from my salary.He makes a
deduction if I forget to do something, or he says something is dirty."[156]

Recent revisions to
the work permit regulations require employers to pay domestic workers each
month. The Ministry of Manpower, sending countries' embassies, and aid
organizations have intervened in increasing numbers of cases over recent years
to address unpaid wages. Yet many domestic workers continue to have little
access to redress, especially if their employers decide to repatriate them
immediately when they demand their wages. Ministry of Manpower officials have
suggested that domestic workers who are being repatriated contact immigration
officers at their point of departure, but many domestic workers are kept under
close supervision while at the airport, are unaware of such options, are
intimidated by these officials, or are too overwhelmed by the circumstances to
act.

Once they have
returned to their native country, most are resigned to the fact that it is no
longer feasible to reclaim their wages. Human Rights Watch interviewed Dwiyani,
a woman who believed her only recourse was returning to Singapore as a domestic
worker-with another ten-month loan repayment period-and pursuing her claim for
unpaid wages with her first employer. Although she returned and authorities
eventually resolved the case in her favor, the case shows the heavy price
domestic workers can pay if unaware of redress mechanisms available to them.
Dwiyani told us she had worked for her first employer for one year:

I received cash
S$380 for the whole year.I was
confused because I was told to go home and I didn't know what to do and if I
stayed here I didn't know what to do.I
didn't know where to report.

I went homeand
my mother got angry with me.I only
brought two million rupiah [U.S.$198].She asked, "Your employer didn't pay you?"I told her what happened.[and eventually
decided to return to Singapore
under a new contract.]I went back to
MOM [the Ministry of Manpower], my former employers were also there.They said the unpaid wages were only a few
dollars.I claimed S$1640
[U.S.$968].MOM counted for themselves
and they agreed with me.In the end
they paid me.

Now I want to
send money back home and also look for more work, because I have to pay the new
agency.[157]

Exorbitant Debt
Payments

I stayed one month in the employment agency
[when I transferred employers]. They charged me S$20 [U.S.$12] per night and I
owed them S$600 [U.S.$354].Can you
imagine, my monthly salary is S$340 [U.S.$201]. [I transferred employers twice.
When my third employer made me clean two houses,] I ran away to this
shelter.If I go again to my agency,
they will charge S$20 [U.S.$12] again.More debts. I work so hard, and then the salary goes to the agency.

I worked all day and got no rest.My parents don't know I ran away.I am scared.It has been seven months already.I don't have money, I don't want to go back.Even a little money here, it's worth so much
in the Philippines.I paid 20,000 pesos for bus fare, travel tax,
the terminal fee, travel bag.We
borrowed 5,000 from friends.I am scared
to tell my mother, she has high blood pressure.

The agency overcharged me.I have bad luck with employers, I try again
and again.My debts are growing.My two years will be useless!

Minimally regulated
competition among employment agencies in Singapore has led to unconscionable
financial exploitation of poor young women from neighboring countries. In order
to lower the fees they charge prospective employers and boost their own
profits, labor agencies have shifted the burden of recruitment and placement
costs almost entirely to domestic workers, routinely charging between S$1,400
[U.S.$875] and S$2,100 [U.S.$1,312].[158] Employment agencies charge employers much
less:anywhere from several hundred Singapore
dollars, for example, S$588 [U.S.$368], to fees as low as S$88 [U.S.$55] or
even S$1 [U.S.$0.62]. Unable to pay such large fees, domestic workers reach
agreements with their agents and employers to "fly now, pay later," and take
out loans from their employment agents that they repay by turning over their
first several months of pay.

Indonesian domestic
workers typically enter employment with salary deductions of six to ten
months.Other workers, including Sri
Lankans and Filipinas, often have three to six months of their salary withheld,
for example, Margarita Ramos, who arrived in Singapore a few days before Human
Rights Watch interviewed her, told us, "My salary will be S$350 [U.S.$206], but
I will give S$330 [U.S.$195] to the agency for six months."[159] A professional working in the domestic
worker industry for several decades said:

From 1980-1990,
the employer paid [the placement costs].The maid paid a small little fee.But the competition between agents has increased, they are not charging
employers, and instead passing the buck to maids.For six to eight months, the poor maid does
not get a salary.The abuse of maids
comes from the EA [employment agent].They do business by not charging employers.[160]

No regulations
exist to cap the salary deductions imposed on migrant domestic workers. As
discussed earlier, domestic workers are excluded from provisions in the
Employment Act that stipulate salary deductions cannot exceed 25 percent of the
salary due per payment period and that advances made to cover the employee's
traveling expenses may not be covered through salary deductions.[161] An employment agent noted, "In the
accreditation standards, there is nothing about how much salary you can
deduct."[162] Another employment agent told us:

Maids are sucked
dry.They come from villages, are
innocent.What I have told MOM [Ministry
of Manpower], when you bring a girl from the kampung [village], and her salary
is deducted for ten months, she is working in a high building, overworked, no
freedom, working hard.The government
says it is a free market, but that only works with a level playing field.[163]

Singapore's standards concerning
salary deductions fall behind those of other countries.Hong Kong and the Philippines require employers to
pay for domestic workers' transit to and from the country of employment. Hong Kong also requires that employers bear the cost of
visas, insurance, required medical exams, and other administrative fees (see
appendix A).

Human Rights Watch
interviewed employment agents in Singapore who attribute their high
fees to overcharging by labor agents in sending countries, part of which may go
toward bribes. One employment agent told us, "I don't know how much.But I'm very, very sure, that a certain
amount [of the fee paid to labor agents in sending countries] goes to
immigration officials.When labor
agents from sending countries increase their fees, we have to increase
ours.They are killing their own
people."[164]

Other employment
agents described intense competition from their peers as a reason they have
lowered fees charged to employers and offer free replacements. One labor agent
in the industry for several years said, "This business is so crowded, so
competitive. I charge S$520 [U.S.$307] [to employers,] and if it doesn't work
out after three months, for any reason, I will give a replacement. I will
charge S$250 [U.S.$148] when there is an excess supply of maids.The fee I charge has dropped from S$1600
[U.S.$944] to S$250.I don't have the
luxury of rejecting employers.I need
the money."[165] When agents offer replacements with "no
questions asked," many domestic workers' debts increase because they have to
pay a transfer fee. An employment agent told us, "For every transfer we make a
lot of money.We add a one-month
deduction.I know some agents charging
two months."[166]

Employment agencies
also have a vested interest in reclaiming the "loans" they extend to domestic
workers. Bridget Lew, who runs a shelter for abused domestic workers and has
also started an employment agency said that Indonesian employment agents charge
S$1400-1500 [U.S.$875-938] for a domestic worker and demand half of the money
up front from the Singapore
agents. She said:

The girls can't
pay, the employers can't pay. So the girls are slammed with loans for six to
nine months. If she cannot cope and [leaves her employer before the loan is
repaid], the [Singapore]
agency has already paid up front. The supplier won't return the money, and the
employer will refuse to pay the money. The poor girl has no money, so the
agency has to absorb the cost. So the agent will push the girl to another
employer so she will earn back the money.[167]

Exorbitant fees and
long debt repayment periods place migrant domestic workers in a highly
vulnerable position. Migrant domestic workers feel enormous pressure to extend
their employment as long as they can so they can repay their debts and begin
earning a salary. Employers have the right to repatriate them at will, and the
power to deny employment transfers should the domestic worker seek another
employer.

Human Rights Watch
interviewed migrant domestic workers who stayed in abusive situations fearing
that they would lose their opportunity to repay their debts if they complained
about their employers or escaped to their embassies. Lina Alvarez's employer
made her work at a store in addition to cleaning the house, demanded
sixteen-hour workdays, and gave her only a mattress to sleep on at night.
Alvarez waited until she had completed her debt payments before leaving her
employer. She told us, "The first six months, my boss was very bad.When I finished my salary deduction after six
months, I wanted to go back home."[168] Another domestic worker said:

I would tell my
agency so many times about the abuse, but she didn't care.She would only say wait, wait, wait.If you come back, you have to pay eight
million rupiah [U.S.$495].I said okay
already, I was so scared.I didn't want
them to send me back, so I didn't say anything.[169]

Domestic workers
who transfer to a new employer are at risk of being overcharged. Their agents
often charge them daily rates for room and board for the phase between
placement with employers, often between S$10-20 [U.S.$6-12] per night, and a
fee for the transfer.Although
accreditation criteria provide they should not pay more than one month of
salary, many domestic workers paid three months or more. For example, one
domestic worker who transferred employers because the first one did not provide
adequate food, said, "after that transfer, I had a problem with the agency
also.The deduction was very high.I stayed with the agency for one month only
but they deducted four months of my salary.Four months for the transfer and seven months for the initial fee-how
come?"[170] Sylvia Tobias spent one night at her
agent's house before being transferred.She said, "The agent scolded me and added three months of salary
deduction.It was supposed to be one
month only. That is why I complained."[171]

Wati
Widodo recalled her employment agent explaining the terms of her contract to
her. She said, "They said they would cut my salary for seven months,
seven-and-a-half months.If I changed
employers, they would cut three more months.If I changed [employers repeatedly], I would come back with no money."[172] A Filipina domestic worker said, "The agent
sucks blood from us.I am afraid to
change employers because I will have to pay a deduction..The employers pay for us and still the agents
make us pay."[173] Lina Alvarez, above, left her employment
having received only S$20 [U.S.$12] each month during her deduction period.[174]

Wati Widodo
suffered physical abuse at the hands of her employer yet was compelled to stay
to pay off her debt.When she complained
to her agent and tried to change employers, she only faced more abuse.She said:

The employer
would get angry.If there was a problem
outside, if anything was a little wrong, she would get angry.If she was very angry, she would slap me many
times.I hadn't finished my contract
yet.She said I couldn't go home.I couldn't tolerate it.

When I told the
agent the employer had slapped me, she just said, "you must suffer.You should control your feelings."If a maid hasn't finished her salary
deduction, and she calls the agent, the agent is angry.The agent also slapped me; they didn't want
me to leave without finishing the contract and the salary deduction.[175]

International Standards on Forced Labor and
Debt Bondage

Restricted
movement, restricted communication, unpaid wages, deception about work
arrangements, work under threat, and imposition of unreasonably heavy debts are
violations of domestic workers' human rights. In some cases, these conditions
rise to the level of forced labor and debt bondage.

International law
and Singapore's
national laws proscribe forced labor and institutions and practices similar to
slavery, such as debt bondage.[176] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR), ICCPR, the ILO Forced Labor Convention, and the Supplementary
Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and
Practices Similar to Slavery (Supplemental Slavery Convention) are the
principal sources of international law that define and prohibit these practices.
Singapore
has ratified the Forced Labor Convention and the Supplemental Slavery
Convention.[177]

According to ILO
Convention on Forced Labor, Number 29, forced or compulsory labor "shall mean
all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any
penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily."[178] "Menace of any penalty" was explained by
the ILO Committee of Experts as a penalty that "need not be in the form of
penal sanctions, but might take the form also of a loss of rights or
privileges."[179]The
ILO notes that it is possible for workers to revoke freely given consent: "many
victims enter forced labour situations initially of their own accordonly to
discover later that they are not free to withdraw their labour. They are
subsequently unable to leave their work owing to legal, physical or
psychological coercion."[180]

The ILO has further
elaborated on the two key elements of forced labor-the work is exacted under
the menace of a penalty and it is undertaken involuntarily. The ILO provides
the following as examples as a menace of a penalty: physical violence against a
worker or close associates, physical confinement, financial penalties,
denunciation to authorities (police, immigration) and deportation, dismissal
from current employment, exclusion from future employment, and the removal of
rights and privileges. Examples of the involuntary nature of work include:
physical confinement in the work location, psychological compulsion (order to
work backed up by a credible threat of a penalty), induced indebtedness (by
falsification of accounts, inflated prices, excessive interest charges, etc.),
deception about types and terms of work, withholding and non-payment of wages,
and retention of identity documents or other valuable personal possessions.[181]

In fifteen of the
cases documented in this report, labor agents and employers engaged in
practices that created a "menace of penalties," including implied threats to
traffic women into forced prostitution, to impose substantial fines if domestic
workers did not complete their contracts, or to abandon them far from their
homes. In all of these fifteen cases, the circumstances the women described
also meet the ILO definition of "involuntary" work. As already noted, women
described confinement in the workplace, inflated agency fees for transfers of
employment, confiscation of passports and work permits against the worker's
will, and withholding of wages.Domestic
workers told Human Rights Watch they felt they had no choice but to endure poor
working conditions and at times serious abuses because they feared the
consequences if they left their contracts early.

The ILO highlighted
domestic workers as a population of concern in its global study on forced
labor, noting:

A long-standing
problem involving new forms of coercion is the treatment of domestic
workers.Today the growing numbers of
migrant domestics to the Middle East and
elsewhere, who hand over identity documents and find themselves tied to one
household with restricted freedom of movement, are highly vulnerable to forced
labour.[182]

Among the fifteen
cases of forced labor we documented, some were situations of indebtedness akin
to debt bondage. The U.N. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery
defines debt bondage as:

The status or
condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his/her personal service or
those of a person under his/her control as security for a debt, if the value of
those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of
the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively
limited and defined.[183]

In the case of Luz
Padilla, described above, the combination of a burdensome initial debt and her
employment agent's practice of overcharging for transfers meant that her
efforts to work off growing debts were futile and that she had no foreseeable
end to her debt payments. Her case and those of domestic workers in similar
circumstances are akin to a situation of debt bondage.

International Standards on Freedom of
Movement and Freedom of Association

International law
protects both the right to freedom of movement and freedom of association.Article 13 of the UDHR provides for the right
to freedom of movement and the right to return to one's country.[184]In
addition to its legal basis under treaty law, the right to return to one's own
country has increasingly been recognized as a norm of international customary
law.[185]

Article 20 of the
UDHR recognizes the right to freedom of association.[186]This
right is further elaborated by several ILO Conventions, most notably the
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948
(Convention No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining
Convention, 1949 (Convention No. 98), two of the ILO's fundamental conventions.[187]Singapore ratified the latter in
1965.[188]

The practice of
preventing domestic workers from leaving their workplace violates international
and Singaporean law.Confinement in the
workplace prevents domestic workers from enjoying other rights, such as the
right to return to their country.Combined with poor working conditions and other forms of abuse, forced
confinement is also psychologically abusive, isolating domestic workers from
support networks or escape options and fostering dependency and feelings of
powerlessness.

Restrictions on
migrant domestic workers' movements prevent them from associating with other
domestic workers, or from contacting religious organizations, NGOs, or other
support and advocacy groups. Rest days and annual leave are critical labor
rights not only for domestic workers to take necessary rest, but also to
protect their freedom of movement and association. Filipina domestic workers
are the most likely to have at least one day off a month and use their day off
to attend church and to meet with one another. They have formed associations in
which they can turn to each other for social support and information, and
through which support services, including health care and legal aid, can more
easily be channeled.

Poor
Working Conditions

If I clean, if I
finish, [my employer] says it's not clean.I have to repeat the work.So I
finish my work only at nighttime.I mop
at 9 p.m. and then I
sweep.At 10 p.m. I shower.She gives me only ten minutes to shower and wash my clothes.She scolds me and gets very angry if I take
longer.Then I massage her for one or
two hours.At 1:30 a.m. I sleep.If I'm not finished, [my employer] says I
can't sleep.Sometimes I don't eat
lunch.My friend asks me through the
window, "why are you taking dinner so late at 11 p.m.?"Because I
am so busy.I have no break or rest.

Given domestic workers exclusion from Singapore's Employment
Act-which regulates hours of work, weekly rest days, termination of contract,
maternity benefits, and other labor protections-and the lack of comparable
protections in the work permit regulations, many domestic workers sign
employment contracts furnished to them either by their employment agents or
their embassies. These are often vague or poorly enforced.

Among the typical problems that domestic workers confront
are poorly defined work responsibilities; long hours of work; infrequent or
lack of rest days, paid vacation days, or paid sick leave; and few protections
regarding termination of employment. A diplomat from Sri Lanka noted, "if an employer is
not happy with the maid, they can cancel work permits without notice."[189]
A domestic worker described how vague her work responsibilities were: "They
never said, can you handle one house with five rooms and five children?They asked can you care for children, but not
how many.Can you care for an old
person, but not how many."[190]

Lack of Rest Days

The association [of employment agencies in Singapore]
is trying to encourage employers to give one day off per month.This is a lousy deal, it's not so wonderful,
even God takes a rest once a week.

-Employment agent, Singapore, March 1, 2005

Reliable data on the number of domestic workers in Singapore
who receive at least one day off per week is not available.New accreditation criteria for employment
agencies mandating they create employment contracts with at least one rest day
per month for migrant domestic workers fall short of national and international
labor standards calling for weekly rest days.The Philippines Overseas Administration issues a contract that
stipulates one day off per week, and Filipina domestic workers are the mostly
likely to enjoy this right. The Sri Lanka High Commission also has a standard
employment contract which calls for domestic workers to have one day off per
month.

The Association of Employment Agencies of Singapore (AEAS)
promotes a "model" employment contract which it encourages employment agencies
to adopt.Beginning in 2006, accreditation
criteria will require new contracts to stipulate a minimum of one rest day per
month. These will not apply to current contracts. In early 2005, several
employment agents told Human Rights Watch their contracts offer one rest day
per month, but they advise employers not to begin giving rest days until the
first six months of employment have finished.[191]
For example, one employment agent told Human Rights Watch, "I use the AEAS
standard contract.This specifies one
day off a month.For Filipinas, a
minimum of one day off per month, sometimes two.There is a probation period of six months,
then one day off. I find it important [not to allow a day off initially],
especially for Indonesians.They are
easily influenced.After six months,
they get to know the employer."[192]

Domestic workers anxious to pay off their debts and to
secure a job in Singapore
do not have much negotiating power to improve working conditions.One domestic worker said, "I had no off
day.I asked for an off day, but they
never gave it."[193]An employment agent who specializes in Sri
Lankan and Indian domestic workers said, "To inexperienced girls, I don't give
an off day.Not at all. I tell her, "you
will not get an off day, unless the employer says so."After six months, the employer trusts
her.Some employers are very easy and
give off days.I tell these employers, "you
will spoil them."[194]

Employment agencies have enormous influence over the terms
of employment contracts, often at the expense of migrant workers' rights, even
though Singaporean policies dictate that contracts be negotiated between
employers and employees. One Indonesian domestic worker said, "I asked for an
off day, but the labor agents never gave it to me.I asked them, 'Can you give me an off day
please?'In Singapore
and Indonesia
both, the labor agents told me 'no.'"[195]

Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers, employers,
agents, government officials, embassy officials, and aid organizations who
confirmed that a significant proportion of foreign domestic workers in
Singapore do not receive a weekly day off, and others, only one day per
month.Marites Padilla reflected the
situations of many of the women Human Rights Watch interviewed when said that
she was not able to choose whether she would have a day off or not.She said, "I signed a contract for 340
dollars with no day off.The agents
didn't give me a choice about the day off."[196]Domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights
Watch repeatedly stressed the need for time to rest, both during the day and at
least once a week. One Indonesian domestic worker explained, "They must give a
rest day.It is important to meet
friends.We are in somebody else's
house."[197]
Rita Yuboc, a twenty-four year-old Filipina worker said, "Sister, we are
human.We need to take a day off."[198]

As a result of government protections extended by the Philippines
government as well as a greater awareness about their rights, Filipinas are
more likely to enjoy regular rest days then their Indonesian and Sri Lankan
counterparts.Even then, some do not
receive these rest days during their first few months of employment, or are
limited to just one day a month.One
Filipina worker who had been employed in Singapore for several years told
Human Rights Watch, "For my first two years, I asked if I could have an off day
every week.Ma'am said the boys are
young, she needs my service.She didn't
allow me to have an off day every week, she only gave them to me once a
month.After two years, she gave me off
days twice a month.Filipinas are
lucky.The Indonesians do not have an
off day."[199]A newly arrived Filipina domestic worker
said, "I will not get an off day.I
think it's very bad.They said I can get
one after one year."[200]Others arrange to receive less compensation
if they choose to take a rest day.Marites Padilla told us, "I got an off day one time every two months.My employers would deduct S$10 [U.S.$6]
salary [each time]."[201]

Many domestic workers reported having to work in the
mornings and evenings of their day off.Michelle Udarbe, a Filipina domestic worker who had been employed in Singapore
for several years said, "I get an off day twice a month.I go out at 8 a.m.From 6 a.m. - 8 a.m. I clean the house
first.Because my sir likes to play
golf, I prepare breakfast."[202]

The lack of a rest day also often interferes with domestic
workers' ability to practice their religion freely.Lalitha Ranjanie confronted both of these
problems and said her agency required her to accept a reduced salary if she
wanted a day off. "They wouldn't give me more than one off day per month.I would be off from 8 a.m.- 6 p.m., then I needed to come back to
make dinner.On Saturday I would make
breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Sunday.Then they could heat it."[203]

Many employers and employment agents say they fear women
will use a day off for activities such as second jobs, dancing, forming
relationships with men, or even prostitution.They justify controls on the freedom of movement of domestic workers in
the name of protecting domestic workers from lecherous male foreign workers and
helping them to save money. As one member of a faith-based organization that
assists domestic workers said in response: "The day off issue is a real
issue.Why hold employers responsible
for the social actions of maids?If a
maid gets pregnant, [the employer] sends them back.Why is there the need for a bond?"[204]

An
employment agent with more than twenty years of experience said employers use
the threat of domestic workers getting pregnant as an excuse to keep them
working throughout the week: "This is what employers say to me:'If they get pregnant, I will lose S$5,000
[U.S.$2,950].'"[205]Employers' fears are based on misinformation.
According to work permit regulations, a pregnant domestic worker must return to
her home country, but her employer will not forfeit the security bond. Another
labor agent said:

[Giving maids a] rest day is a problem in Singapore.Because of the bond, employers are reluctant
to give rest days.Frankly, I think it
is a lousy reason.I try to promote it,
but meet with lots of resistance.People
think it will create social problems.They think maids will get pregnant, [they ask] who will be responsible
for the S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950].It is a
stinky excuse to keep a maid indoors for twenty-four hours, seven days a
week.MOM [Ministry of Manpower] should
legislate because employers are so resistant.It's only fair to every human being.They are entitled to once a week off.[206]

At the time of this writing, the government had not made any
moves to require that all domestic workers receive one day off per week.Instead, they have started to support
programs that would address employers' anxiety about how their domestic workers
are spending their day off.For example,
they contribute financially to the Bayanihan center, a training institute run
by the Filipino embassy and domestic workers which provides weekend courses for
domestic workers to learn new skills.One
official from the Ministry of Manpower said, "There is a role to be played by
such institutions.The government can
catalyze the process.These are useful
ways to spend days off.Employers are
very worried workers will get bad company.They wonder, what is my worker going to do on her day off?[The question is how] to structure it in a
way that is palatable."[207]

Hours of Work, Rest Periods

We have seen a lot
of Indonesian workers working more than eighteen hours.We wish the hours were shorter.Maybe because our language skills are not so
good, they use us like machines.

Some people wake up
at 5 a.m., they have to work
until 2 a.m.You can imagine how tired they are. There
should be strict work hours, no more than ten hours per day.So many work twelve, sixteen, eighteen hours.
Domestic workers should be included in the Employment Act.Our contract should be enforced so we can
claim our rights.

─Recommendations from focus group of Indonesian
domestic workers, Singapore,
March 6, 2005

Of the sixty-five domestic workers with whom Human Rights
Watch conducted in-depth interviews, most reported working thirteen to nineteen
hours each day.While some domestic
workers were content with their employment and were able to take periodic rests
during the day, others felt enormous pressure to complete multiple tasks during
the day.This was especially true of
domestic workers responsible for large houses or multiple residences, or taking
care of young children or the elderly.

One domestic worker, Rita Yuboc, described her working
conditions as follows:

I woke up at 4
a.m.Some employers are
like that, they don't want you to sleep or take a rest.I didn't have any breaks, I had so much work
to finish.I would take my baths
quickly.My employer would knock on the
door."I didn't tell you you could take
a bath" Sometimesemployers want the maid to clean until 10 p.m. or 12
a.m. and to start working again at 6 a.m.[208]

Domestic workers who were employed in households with
frequent visitors also reported a heavy workload.Chandrika Das said, "For five years there
were eight to ten people in the homeand it was a common practice to have
frequent visitors.I couldn't sleep, I
would serve water and fruits.I had no
rest during the day.I had no time, it
was painful for me.Sometimes I
cried.I had no day off."[209]
Several workers reported having around-the-clock jobs if they were caring for
babies in addition to their other work.One worker said:

I worked for a Chinese family.There was one man, one woman, a
two-and-a-half-year-old boy, and a three-week old girl.I had to look after the baby, clean the
house, cook.I started work at 6 a.m. and went to sleep at 1 a.m.I had to look after the baby, so if the baby woke up in the night, I had
to wake up too.During the day, I had to
stop my work to take care of her.I did
everything.They lived on the 14th
floor and I had to clean the windows, it was very dangerous.I got no sleep.This employer kept me very busy.Nothing could wait until tomorrow.I couldn't rest.My employer scolded me.She said "you must finish."[210]

Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who said
their employers imposed such exacting standards that they had to work from
morning until night, often repeating tasks, to a level of cleanliness difficult
to achieve.One domestic worker told
Human Rights Watch:

My employer would ask me to mop the floor twelve times in
the morning with pledge. There was no end to my work.My employer was never happy. I had no off
day, and it was promised to me.They
told lies to me. They were not paying.I
was very confused.How can I finish two
years?I suffered a lot, I was really
under pressure.I was very tired, that
is why I ran away.[211]

Ministry of Manpower officials acknowledge that some
domestic workers must work long hours, but argue that the nature of domestic
workers' labor is one that is difficult to regulate. Representatives of the
Foreign Manpower Management Division said,

The working hours, the nature of work for domestic
workers is different from office work, which is 9-5.It depends on individual needs.Employers and employees must come to a mutual
understanding.We hope to change
through employer education.There is
different bargaining power.The key is
to encourage best practices, working closely with intermediaries.[212]

Although an infant or elderly person may require care
twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, the burden should not fall on a
single domestic worker to work around the clock. Other professions with similar
demands, for example, nursing, arrange for shift work that ensures workers
receive regular periods of rest. Employers must find ways to manage their own
time and alternatives like child care to ensure reasonable working hours for
domestic workers.

Illegal Deployment

I work two jobs but
get one salary.I am working for 100
percent free in my employer's mother's house. I wash everything by hand.The curtains I wash by hand, the bedsheets by
hand.They have a machine but they don't
want me to use it. They think I am lousy, stupid. I am very tired. I complain
to them, "I am a person, you want a dog."They never let me out.They ask
me to work and work and work.

Another problem that some domestic workers confront is
illegal deployment to jobs other than the one stipulated in their work permits
and employment contracts.Singapore's
immigration policies require that domestic workers be employed in only one
household and prohibits them from engaging in other forms of work.Many domestic workers have little choice but
to perform the work demanded of them by their employers.Even in cases where they know working for
others is illegal, many are afraid to protest, knowing employers might
repatriate them before they pay back their loans or earn money.Rita Yuboc worked for two separate employers
who violated the terms of her employment visa and contract.She said:

Every Sunday I had to clean the house of my madam's
mother.[For my third employer], I had
to clean the factory, one residence, so many houses.I cleaned the residence and condo everyday,
and the factory every day, sometimes all day.They [also] delivered me boxes of factory work.Fifty boxes, I would do it at home.How many [pieces] inside, in one box, one
thousand.Sometimes in one day, I would
have to finish eight boxes.[213]

In another case documented by Human Rights Watch, an
employer operated a laundry business out of her home by exploiting her domestic
worker's labor. The domestic worker, Aisyah Fatah, said:

At 5 a.m.,
I would wake up, prepare the laundry.There were two washing machines and two dryers.I would boil water, and clean the house.I helped children when they wanted to eat and
drink.I cooked when the children were
at school. I did laundry from 5 a.m.
to 12 a.m.The clothes were from outside.It was quite a lot, from customers at a hotel
and factories.The machine was running
non-stop.I had no chance to rest.

I felt tired. There was not enough food.I had no off day, not even one, because there
was so much work to do.The only time I
went out is when I delivered the clothes from the 12th floor to the
1st floor, and then I had to come right back.I never went outside.Even if I was sick, I tried not to feel
it.My hands and feet were sore because
I was so tired.I was standing morning
to night, I couldn't sit.[214]

One domestic worker worked early in the morning to cook food
for the canteen that her employer operates.She said:

At first my salary was S$240 [U.S.$150], now it is S$250
[U.S.$156].It should be more than S$300
[U.S.$188] because I do so much work. I wake up at 2 a.m. to prepare food for the canteen and to pray.I sleep from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.Then I clean the whole house, cook, and care
for the child. I don't know how to change employers.I am scared because of all the stories.[215]

Some employment agents may also illegally deploy domestic
workers to multiple employers on a daily or weekly basis. In such cases, the
agents often keep the payments themselves. An official at the Sri Lanka High
Commission told us of one case in which an agent did not process a domestic
worker for a work permit when she arrived in Singapore:

Some agents are the scum of the earth.He put her in temporary employment in six
different places.After one month, she
asked for her salary.The agent abused
her in four letter words, screamed at her."I'm taking you out of there and I'll send you back."He had been collecting her wages.She paid for her own ticket home.Some connection took pity on her and took
her to MOM [Ministry of Manpower], and made a report.[216]

Low and Unequal Wages

Our basic salary should be the same as that
of domestic workers from other countries.We feel it isunfair.I also can
speak English.We are also human, also
workers.We also clean toilets.Why make it different?We are the same as workers from other
countries.

─Focus
group with Indonesian domestic workers, Singapore, March 6, 2005

Inadequate state
regulation of domestic workers' wages has led both to extremely low wages that
are a mere fraction of that earned by other workers and to discriminatory
practices by agencies that set wages according to nationality. Singapore
has no minimum wage law. According to the Singapore Report on Wages 2004, an
average entry-level Singaporean worker in a comparable occupation, for example,
a cleaner or gardener, earns a starting wage of approximately S$700-850
[U.S.$438-531] per month.[217] In contrast, the starting salary for
Filipina domestic workers in early 2005 was S$320 [U.S.$189], for Indonesian
and Sri Lankan domestic workers, approximately S$220-260 [U.S.$130-153], and
for Indian domestic workers S$150-180 [U.S.$88-106] per month. One agent who
supplies Indian domestic workers said, "They are the worst paid, S$180 per
month. If they come direct with no agent, their pay is about S$100 [U.S.$59]."[218]

One domestic
worker, Tina Wisnawan, told Human Rights Watch:

My salary is
S$250 [U.S.$148] only.For one month I
get S$250, you can count-I am working from 7
a.m. to 10 p.m.,
it is so long.You can count how much I
earn per hour [S$0.55 per hour/U.S.$0.32]. It's crazy.Indonesian maids have situations like this.[219]

Market forces serve
to exploit migrant domestic workers in a context where a significant power
imbalance exists between agents and employers on the one hand, and workers on
the other, and where state policies accentuate these disparities. Singapore's
work permit regulations allow employers to repatriate a migrant domestic worker
at will, weakening any bargaining power she may have. An organization providing
services to domestic workers said:

Employers have
the privilege to cancel the work permit as they see fit.The domestic workers are truly at their
mercy.If you're not happy, cancel the
work permit and the maid goes home.The
maid has paid a lot of money to come here.It prevents a lot of them from speaking up.They have large families to support.[220]

For example, one
highly-educated Filipina domestic worker told us her salary is, "quite low, for
five years I have had no increase....I
don't want to complain. I fear they
will find another maid."[221] Employment agencies typically offer
prospective employers a "package" that includes a domestic worker at a set wage
and a "free replacement" if there are problems.

Inadequate
Living Accommodations

Many domestic workers reported that in addition to long
working hours, a lack of rest days, and other labor violations, their dignity
as human beings was not respected by their employers or agents.In particular, many domestic workers are
given substandard living accommodations. A group of domestic workers,
discussing the recommendations they would like to see implemented, said, "Employers
must give food, proper accommodation and respect to domestic workers.They should treat workers with respect.If they respect us, we will respect them."[222]

Several domestic workers that Human Rights Watch interviewed
did not have adequate living arrangements and were sleeping in the common
living areas.[223]For example, one domestic worker said, "I
slept with the lady and the baby.I
couldn't sleep alone.Sometimes I slept
on the floor in the hallway or in the room for changing clothes."[224]
Another domestic worker said, "I slept in the front hall.I had to unroll my mat each night.Everybody could walk by, they could see me
[when I was sleeping]."[225]
A domestic worker in a similar situation said, "I was not comfortable, because
it was in the open."[226]
One woman explained that her employer, "wanted me to sleep in the living
room.I slept in the store room because
I didn't want to sleep in the living room."[227]
Many domestic workers slept in storerooms, laundry rooms, or closet areas:"I slept in the storeroom.I couldn't stretch out my legs, it was very
small!It was the length of this sofa,
only 2-3 feet high."[228]In some of the worst situations, employers
did not provide basic sleeping materials.

Many domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch
shared their bedroom with an employer or the employer's children.In some cases, domestic workers shared rooms
with adult males. Dwiyani told Human Rights Watch that in one employment
situation, "I slept in a room together with the employer's children, one a
twenty-six-year-old man, and a seventeen-year-old girl.When I was at the agent's office, I was told
that both were female.At first I was
very afraid.When I was asleep, the boy
slept next to me, but nothing happened."[229]
Kartini Wibowo said, "The daughter and [the employer's] wife sleep on the
beds.I slept on the floor in between
them."[230]
One domestic worker said, "I share a room and bed with my employer's
fourteen-year-old daughter."[231]
Sharing a room with others often meant that domestic workers did not have the
ability to take adequate rest time. She told us, "Every night the mother helps
the kids to study until 11 p.m.I have to wait for them to finish before I
can sleep.I do not have a chance to
rest.If I want to lie down during the
daytime, I cannot, I cannot rest."[232]

Many are forced to cut their hair, although the stated
reason of hygiene is one that could easily be solved by hairnets.For example, Eri Sudewo, a domestic worker,
said:

My hair was long.The employer said, 'You must cut your hair.If your hair drops on the floor, it's
dirty.If you don't cut it, I will cut
it.'I cried, because I didn't want
short hair.I cried.She said, I will take you to get your hair
cut, if you don't want to cut it, then go home.I don't want to go back home, it's so
shameful.In my country, we are
Muslim.We go to the mosque, I do not
want to go with short hair.I cried
again.I cried and cried and cried.[233]

The Right to Just and Favorable Conditions
of Work

International human rights law protects a spectrum of
workers' rights.Articles 23 and 24 of
the UDHR outline rights to just and favorable conditions of work, remuneration,
freedom to form and join trade unions, rest, leisure, reasonable limitations of
working hours, and periodic holidays.[234]Article 11(d) of CEDAW delineates the "right
to equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal treatment in respect of
work of equal value" and article 11(f) describes the "right to protection of
health and to safety in working conditions."[235]

The work conditions of migrant domestic workers often do not
meet the minimum standards defined in Singapore law for workers in other
employment sectors.Singapore's Employment Act sets
forth the following labor rights for other employees:one rest day per week; a rest period after
six hours of continuous work, a maximum of forty-four work hours per week, and
paid sick leave.[236]

By excluding domestic workers from the Employment Act, Singapore's
labor laws fail to comply with international law. One of the explanations that
the Singapore
government offers in response to criticisms about excluding domestic workers
from the Employment Act is the difficulty in enforcing such labor protections
and a resulting lack of credibility for the government. Ministry of Manpower
officials told Human Rights Watch, "We have considered a standard
contract.Legislation is not the main
route.[Our concern is] if we have
legislation and are unable to enforce it."[237]

This argument has several flaws. Intentionally excluding
domestic workers from equal treatment in labor laws sends a strong message to
employers and employment agents that the government sanctions separate and
unequal treatment for domestic workers as a class of employees. These
exclusions undermine Singapore's
justice system in a much more profound way-they demonstrate that all persons
are not equal before the law. Hong Kong has included domestic workers in their
employment laws, and while complete enforcement is a challenge-as with any
law-the tens of thousands of workers who congregate on Sundays, form social
organizations, and join trade unions is a testament to how many enjoy their
right to a weekly day off. Domestic workers in Hong Kong
are also entitled to a minimum wage and maternity protections. The Hong Kong government's inclusion of domestic workers in
the employment laws sends a clear message to employers about legally acceptable
standards of treatment.

Furthermore, many strategies exist for bolstering
enforcement of labor protections for migrant domestic workers. These include
raising public awareness, guaranteeing workers' rights to freedom of movement
and freedom to form associations, and improving monitoring systems for
employment agencies and workplaces. Many domestic workers do not seek help
because of fear they would be repatriated before they can repay their debts or
earn something to send home. De-linking domestic workers' visas from particular
employer families could help address this. Other strategies include providing
an option to live in independent quarters, keeping written records of hours
worked, and supporting drop-in centers for migrant domestic workers on their
day off.

Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Mistreatment

Physical Abuse

The lady employer
kicked me while wearing shoes, would throw things at my head, and pinch me in
the stomach.She beat me for two months
before I quit, it was happening everyday.I had bruises on my legs and on my stomach.

Some migrant domestic workers experience serious physical or
sexual abuse. Human Rights Watch interviewed representatives of aid
organizations who stated that physical abuse and food deprivation comprised
approximately one quarter to half of the cases they dealt with, making it the most
commonly reported problem after unpaid wages. Embassies of sending countries
also cited physical abuse and food deprivation as among the complaints they
received.[238]
They noted that physical abuse was a problem not only among employers, but also
employment agents.[239]

The Singapore
government amended its Penal Code in 1998 to increase by 1.5 times the
penalties imposed for physical assault, sexual abuse, and forced confinement,
if the abuse is committed by an employer against a migrant domestic worker.
Between 2001 and 2004, twenty-six employers or household members were convicted
and sentenced under this provision. In a possible indication of the deterrent
value of the added penalty, the number of cases where employers received
warnings from the police or were charged in court fell from 157 cases in 1997
to fifty-nine cases in 2004.[240]
While this is an important step, Singapore authorities need to do more to
ensure that domestic workers know their rights, know how to preserve evidence
(such as photos and other evidence of beatings), and are able to access the
court system.

Many domestic workers are afraid to approach the police for
help, are not aware of where to seek assistance, or refrain from doing so
because of the pressure to pay off their debts and earn money.One domestic worker said, "My employer would
pull my hair and slap me.I had some
bruises but didn't mention it to the police because I was afraid and because I
didn't speak English.I didn't know
anything.If I wanted to complain there
was nowhere.I spent too many days just
crying."[241]

In many cases, employers used the excuse of mistakes in
housework as a justification for punishment.Adelyn Malana said:

Every time I made a mistake, she pushed me.If I did the ironing, she looked for small
things, she beat me, she beat me hard with a big wooden heavy spoon. She says,
where is your brain, eh?I said, "if you
treat me like this, I can't understand you."

I was working for four weeks.She hit me sometimes.One time, I got black bruises on my
foot,.She hit me on the hands, they
would become red.She pushed me when I
carried the electric fan.It broke, and
she said "since my fan broke, you have to pay me."She twisted my finger.I couldn't work.I was crying because there was so much
pain.She gave me no medicine.[242]

In another case, Ani Khadijah said:

My employer would get angry with me and slap me.If a little bit, just a little bit was
wrong.She would complain to the
agent.The employer brought me to the
agent, and my agent slapped me also..Once she slipped on water.She
made me drink four cups of water and she splashed the water on me [when I tried
to drink].The employer was very
cruel.She would slap me over and over
again.Everytime, everyday.

[After I went to the police station], the employer said
"I won't slap you anymore."After one
week she did.The baby got sick and she
slapped me again.She said I didn't give
the milk according to the schedule.

The employer made up stories.I had to wash hands before giving milk.She would say I didn't and slap me

She would get angry.She was not just talking, her hand would be doing the talking.[243]

In another case documented by Human Rights Watch, a domestic
worker said:

If I asked to make a call, she would scold and slap
me.I said I had to call my family, she
slapped me.She slapped me so many
times.The last day [of my employment]
she slapped me twice, because I washed the pillow and the black color ran.

Once she asked me to bring her mahjong, but I didn't know
what mahjong was.She hit me in the
hand.She used to hit me with her hand,
sometimes she would punch me in the arm.Sometimes sir would ask me why it's red, and I would say, "nothing, I
fell down."

The day I ran away, I bled because she punched me.Even after three days at the embassy, I still
had bruises.[244]

Human Rights Watch heard many similar stories. One worker
told us, "The grandma would get angry.She would beat me, pinch me, hit me.That is why I ran away."[245]
In another case, the employer tried to humiliate the domestic worker, who said,
"Sometimes I wasn't allowed to use the toilet.I would have to urinate on a towel.The employer would cut my clothes, like the sleeves on one side.She threw dirty mop water on me many times."[246]

Physical abuse intersects with many of the other problems
that domestic workers confront, including the fear of being sent home before
they pay off their debts and earn a salary. A domestic worker said:

If I made a mistake, she would scold meShe would rap my
headShe would do it hard, it would hurt.She would threaten to send me back to the Philippines.I asked her to forgive me, I needed money for
my family.

It was very difficult.I had a friend next door.When I
threw out the rubbish, I would talk to her. She was an Indonesian maid. Once I
was outside just a few minutes.She was
very angry and pinched my two ears.She
pinched and pulled my two ears and blood came out.This happened twice.

After the [police investigation] finishes, I am going
back to the Philippines.I am going back without anything, it is very
difficult.[247]

Food Deprivation

There was not
enough food.For breakfast I had two
pieces of bread.My employer is very
killer [strict].She counts the bread,
she was killer, killer.When I ate one piece
of fish, the employer got angry.At
night I was hungry. When the employer went out, sometimes my neighbor would
knock on the door and give me rice to eat. There are still a lot of people like
me.They do not get enough food.When I worked in the laundry, there was a
Filipina next door.I would meet her
when taking out the garbage.The
Filipina worker said she was hungry.We
should get enough to eat.Because the
work is hard, we need to eat.When I was
working in that house, I went from 54 to 40 kilograms.

Human Rights Watch interviewed many domestic workers who did
not receive adequate food at their place of employment. The work permit states
that employers are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of their domestic
worker.Given that many of these women
are unable to move freely outside of their workplace, they are dependent on
their employers to provide them enough food. One domestic worker, Mallika
Selvi, said, "I get food once a day only."[248]
Another domestic worker said she lost 10 kilograms during her first year of
employment.[249]

Adelyn Malana weighed 45 kilograms when she began
employment, and weighed only 37 kilograms when she ran away from her employer
six months later.She said:

Sometimes there was not enough food..They bought food from outside, but not for
me.When angry, [the employer] would
throw my food in the rubbish. I asked permission [to eat rice, but] I got no
rice, only bread .For breakfast I had
two pieces of bread.At 4 p.m. I took two more pieces of
bread..I am a human.I got sick.I'm far [from home,] who would take care of me if I got sick? I ran
away.I was very scared. My employer
told me, "Tomorrow you have a punishment, no eating.".I took my bag and I
ran.I called my sister, I'm hungry and
my employer is no good.If I stay long,
I think I'd go to the hospital.I would
get an ulcer.I want to eat everyday, I
want to eat enough.[250]

Bayuningsih's employer locked her inside the house and
locked the kitchen door when she left the house so Bayuningsih could not eat
the food.This employer not only denied
her food, but would spoil it so that it would be inedible.She told Human Rights Watch:

My employer would get angry.If there was no food to eat, she would say,
"I don't care, drink water.When you
finish working, then I will give you food." When I finished work, she would
tell me to go to sleep. Once when my employer got angry, she put soap in my tin
of food and I couldn't eat it.But I ate
it anyway because I was so hungry. The outside door was locked.All the doors were locked, only the bathroom
was open.The kitchen was locked.[Sometimes] for one day, sometimes for one
week at a time, I would never eat anything.I was hungry, what could I do? I was hungry.[251]

Lalitha Ranjanie, another domestic worker, said, "If I took
fish and vegetables on my plate, my employer would say, 'you take so much, take
some out'.[Once] for three days they
stopped giving me food."[252]
Many domestic workers reported that they ate leftovers, and if there were not
enough, they would be hungry.[253]One domestic worker told Human Rights Watch,
"When I cooked in the evening, my employer said I should make extra for my
breakfast and lunch, but if I cooked a lot, the employer would be angry at me
for eating too much.In the evening, I
would get the leftovers, and if there were no leftovers, I would only eat
rice."[254]
Sri Mulyani said, "I only ate once a day at 7p.m.I never took
lunch.I was asked to cook only a little
bit of food, and I was afraid the kids wouldn't have enough to eat.For example, if we were eating chicken wings,
the employer would tell me to buy three for the kids, and then there wouldn't
be enough for me.I would drink a lot of
water."[255]

Human Rights Watch interviewed employment agents who both
verified that food deprivation was a problem with some employers, but suggested
that some domestic workers were too shy to ask for food. One agent said,
"Sometimes a maid will say, 'I don't get to eat between breakfast and
dinner.'Not because the employers said
no, but because they dare not to eat.We
call our clients and say, 'please tell the maid she can eat or that she doesn't
have to wait until 8 p.m./dinner.'"[256]

Domestic workers confront hardship not only because of a
lack of food, but because of the timing of meals and the lack of continuous
rest breaks.One worker, age
twenty-four, said, "In the morning [the employer] wanted me to clean before
taking breakfast.My stomach was empty."[257]
Other domestic workers described their workload and the lack of continuous
periods of rest that prevented them from eating. Pertiwisari explained, "If I
don't finish my work, I cannot sleep, [my employer] said.Sometimes I didn't eat lunch.For breakfast I prefer to eat bread, but my
employer said, 'why buy bread, the children don't eat it.'So I only took water."[258]

Human Rights Watch found a range of opinions among
employment agents about food deprivation.Some agents challenge the claims of domestic workers. For example,
several employment agents told Human Rights Watch in a meeting, "FDWs [foreign
domestic workers] have accused agents of not providing enough food.They lie.If they are choosy about food, they don't say.It is a lie."[259]
Other employment agents expressed concern and took active measures to address
the problem. Human Rights Watch interviewed an employment agent who said, "Some
maids lose 5 kilograms in one month. We keep a scale in the office.Agents are supposed to protect both
parties.If the employer abuses the
maid, we won't give them another maid."[260]

Many domestic workers depend on the kindness of neighbors
and fellow domestic workers. Human Rights Watch interviewed several domestic
workers who said that if their employer did not provide them with adequate
food, they had neighbors who would try to sneak them food from open windows.
One domestic worker said:

I had a friend on the second floor. I was working on the
third floor.During morning and lunch, I
didn't get anything to eat.My friend
often gave me food.I would pull food up
using yarn, my friend would help by pushing it with a mop.[261]

Another worker, Budi Puspita, said, "My friend has a problem
with her employer. The employer doesn't give her enough food, they abuse
her.She can't talk [or go out.]We call her from the intercom downstairs."[262]

Sexual Abuse and Harassment

[Crying and whispering]He asked me to have sex with him.Why do domestic workers always have to
submit?I never follow his wish.I lie to him.I am afraid that some day he will really force me.When his wife is not at home, he approaches
me.The employer's bad behavior is why
I want to go home.If it is bad words, I
can take it.I prefer being hit or bad
words to this.

If I change
employers, the salary will be deducted again.If I change employers, it will become a one year and six month
deduction.I will remain at the house as
long as they don't do anything to me.I
don't want anyone to know.Even my best
friend doesn't knowWhat would I say to the lady employer?I don't want to tell the agent, he has
threatened me.

Migrant domestic workers are at risk of sexual harassment
and abuse by their employers. Although our research and indications from the
Ministry of Manpower, sending countries' embassies, and service agencies
suggest that sexual abuse comprises a relatively small proportion of complaints
made by migrant domestic workers, the severity of the abuse makes it a cause
for particular concern. Underreporting is likely a significant problem due to
domestic workers' isolation in the workplace and the deep social stigma
attached to sexual assault. This stigma may be especially strong in their home
countries.

The forms of abuse vary. Marites Padilla, a twenty-nine-year-old
Filipina domestic worker said her male employer sexually harassed her in the
mornings when her female employer left early for work. Weeping, she told Human
Rights Watch:

The
room is open, there is never a closed door.I could see [my employer] naked, I could see him masturbating. The first
time I ignored it.But it happened every
time. The first time I thought it was a coincidence.Then how many times already.This happened for over a year. One time, I
knew mom was not going to be home.The
kids were still sleeping.Every
morning, I felt nervous and scared.He
called me, he was standing in the door of the room I was cleaning.I saw him naked below.He called me to bring his underwear to
him.I put it on the doorknob, and I
said, "sir, your underwear."He asked me
to iron it. He was still naked, he really exposed his private parts.I was very angry.[263]

A domestic worker, Muriyani Suharti, told Human Rights
Watch:

I was threatened, if I didn't sleep with my employer,
they would send me to Batam.Once or
twice a week I was forced to sleep with him.If I was angry with him, he would want me.They said they would sell me to Batam where I
would be taken by a lot of men.[264]

Even if a domestic worker turns to her embassy or the
police, these authorities sometimes fail to investigate the case properly or
release her back into the custody of an employment agency. Employment agencies
often fail to report abuses or to provide necessary aid and referrals.

Domestic workers told Human Rights Watch they do not know
where to turn. Suharti, described above, unsuccessfully sought help from the
police and was returned to her employment agency. She said:

After two months I couldn't take it anymore, so I ran
away.I went to the mosque.I asked [for help to] report to the police.
After that the police came and took me and I said how the employer forced
me.That time the police put me in
jail.I don't know why, I got angry.
"Why are you putting me here? I'm not a criminal." The police said, "this is a
safe place for you." After two days, the agency came and took me.[265]

Domestic workers are at
increased risk for abuse if agents illegally deploy them for part-time work to
multiple employers. Neerangini, an Indian domestic worker told us how her agent
sent her to several households and withheld her wages. For seven days, she
worked in the house of a man whose family was traveling abroad. She said:

I couldn't fight him off, he threatened me.It felt dirty, painful.He threatened me, "I paid money to bring you
here to work." I said, "You didn't tell me what kind of work.You didn't buy me to rape me but for a
job.I didn't come for this kind of job.I have a husband and children, I know family
life."He didn't show sympathy.I was begging on my hands and knees, "let me
use the phone."[266]

Verbal Abuse and Threats

My employers used
only abusive words.They didn't hit
methey would say things like "why don't you jump out of the window?Rather than thinking about your parents, it
would be better if you just committed suicide by jumping out the window." The
wife was really angry and used bad words.She called me a pig, a prostitute, an easy woman.

Verbal and psychological abuse by employers serves to
belittle, intimidate, and further isolate domestic workers. One common threat,
women said, was that they would be sent back to their home countries, a
frightening prospect to women who have huge debts to repay or fear punishment
from labor agents. Ministry of Manpower officials told Human Rights Watch,
"Employers take the threat of repatriation lightly, but it has a big
psychological impact."[267]
As mentioned above, Lilia Jornadal's employer hit her and would threaten to
send her back to the Philippines.[268]
One domestic worker, Aisyah Fatah, told us:

My employer got angry every day.One time, she threatened me, "do you want me
to hit you?" She threatened often to send me back.I was not allowed to talk to other
people.Next door, there was also an
Indonesian, I was not allowed to talk to her.If I was caught, I was told I could be sent back.[269]

Verbal abuse often goes together with long work hours and
unreasonable work expectations. Dewi Hariyanti told us, "If I make a little
mistake, [my employer] often uses harsh words, shouts.His wife also gets angry with me.Sometimes they say, "you prawn brain."They say too much, I do not want to
remember."[270]
Employers often exhibited abusive control by monitoring domestic workers' every
movement or forcing them to repeat tasks.Adelyn Malana told Human Rights Watch:

Even simple cleaning I couldn't do without permission
from her.If I mopped the floor or
cleaned the table, she was very angry and punished me. Everyday there was a
quarrel.I didn't know what to do.I was very scared because she was very angry.
Sometimes in one week, every day she's angry.Sometimes I forgot to do things or made mistakes, [for example] I put
the bedsheet and bedcover together in the wash instead of separate. She would
make me mop the floor ten times in one day because of a very small mistake. She
would ask, "Why do you make me angry?"[271]

Domestic workers reported name-calling and other derogatory
statements. Milagros Baluyot said that her employer, "always gets angry and I
have to take the blame.If he loses his
keys, it's my fault.'You bloody,
fucking maid!'He will say this in the
middle of the street."[272]
Human Rights Watch interviewed Lalitha Ranjanie, a domestic worker who said,
"The people of the house call me stupid, an idiot, they use every bad word.
They tell me I am a bad lady, like a prostitute."[273]
Muriyani Suharti said, "Everyday, my employer would get angry.Everyday they would call me an idiot and
stupid.They even used 'idiot' as my
name."[274]

The Right to Security of Person and Freedom from
Discrimination

International human rights law establishes the security of
person, and the right to be free from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.[275]In the Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence against Women, the United Nations stated that governments have an
obligation to "prevent, investigate, and, in accordance with national
legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are
perpetrated by states or by private persons."[276]A state's consistent failure to do so amounts
to unequal and discriminatory treatment, and constitutes a contravention of the
state's obligation to guarantee women equal protection of the law.[277]

The ILO's Committee of Experts considers that sexual
harassment falls within the scope of the ILO Discrimination (Employment and
Occupation) Convention.The CEDAW
Committee has commented that sexual harassment includes:

unwelcome sexually determined behaviour as physical
contact and advances, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography and sexual
demand, whether by words or actions. Such conduct can be humiliating and may
constitute a health and safety problem; it is discriminatory when the woman has
reasonable grounds to believe that her objection would disadvantage her in
connection with her employment, including recruitment and promotion, or when it
creates a hostile working environment.[278]

The Singapore
government has a responsibility to address the psychological, verbal, physical,
and sexual violence that migrant domestic workers encounter. Singapore has indicated that abuse
against domestic workers is a serious offense, both through increased penalties
and by undertaking high-profile prosecutions of abusive employers. As mentioned
earlier, offenses like voluntarily causing hurt, assault, and rape have 1.5
times the penalty if committed against migrant domestic workers.

While Singapore's
strong criminal justice response is an important step in the right direction,
it needs to do more to make it easier for victims to gain access to courts and
social services. Independent monitoring of employment agencies and workplaces
in private homes is also essential, as are mandated weekly rest days and
protections of workers' freedom of association.Women migrant workers' ability to take time off and to visit NGOs, their
country's embassy, health care providers, and workers' associations are
critical measures for increasing their awareness about their rights and access
to services.

Restrictions on Religious Freedom

We went to a labor
agency in Jurong West.They kept our
Indonesian money, cosmetics, and praying garments.They said it would be given to us on our
return.The agency told me we are not
allowed to pray because the employer doesn't like it.The Indonesian agent also told me I wouldn't
be able to pray.I felt very sad.

Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who reported
they were forbidden from attending church if they were Christian, or praying or
fasting if they were Muslim. In many cases, employment agents were the first to
order domestic workers to stop praying, and confiscated their holy books,
prayer shawls, and prayer rugs. In one case, a domestic worker reported:

The agent in Singapore was cruel.I was wearing a head scarf.They took it and threw it away.He took all my family phone numbers, my
prayer books, my scarf, and prayer shawl.He searched my bag and took all of these things out roughly.[279]

Another worker, Kartika Hatmoko,
said, "When I arrived, my madam [employer] said I was not allowed to pray.When I came here, the agency took away my
praying attire."[280]
One domestic worker told Human Rights Watch, "They said I cannot pray, that I
cannot fast during Ramadan."[281]
Kanthi Unisa, a Sri Lankan domestic worker, said, "I asked my agency, I want to
go to church.They said if you want an
off day, take S$25 [U.S.$15] off your salary per day."[282]

Many domestic workers told Human Rights Watch that one of
their main recommendations to the Singapore government would be to
protect their freedom to practice their religion.Tuti Prihatin, a domestic worker, said:

They don't give us freedom to practice our religion.They almost sent me back.If you want me to stay here, I must practice
my religion.If I pray, I remember my
God. The Singapore
agency took my Holy Koran.It made me
very, very sad.Even money is less
important to me.[283]

After a lively discussion with several fellow Indonesian
domestic workers about recommendations to the government, one domestic worker
said, "We should be given freedom to worship.We have to be given freedom to practice religion.Make it punishable for employers who don't
comply."[284]
Another added that it was not only freedom to pray but from coercive
proselytizing, "[My employers] are Christian, and they want me to be
Christian.They told me if I was
Christian, they would give me an off day every Sunday.This is what makes me saddest. They don't let
me fast, I cannot read the Koran.I
cannot even touch it."[285]

Article 18 of the UDHR establishes, "the right to freedom of
thought, conscience, and religionand freedom, either alone or in community
with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in
teaching, practice, worship and observance."[286]The Singapore Constitution states that,
"Every person has the right to profess and practise his religion and to
propagate it."[287]

The restrictions employers and labor agents place on some
migrant domestic workers' freedom to fast, to pray, and to attend religious
services in accordance with their religious beliefs constitute a clear
infringement of their freedom of religion as protected under international
human rights law. In some cases, confiscation of prayer materials and the Koran
as well as targeted religious insults designed to humiliate domestic workers
could also be considered a form of psychological abuse and degrading treatment.

Restrictions on Reproductive and Marriage Rights

8I shall not go through any
form of marriage or apply to marry under any law, religions, custom or usage
with a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident in or outside of Singapore
without the prior approval of the Controller of Work Permits while I hold a
Work Permit and also after my work permit has been cancelled. I will be
expelled and prohibited from entering Singapore if I breach this
condition.

9I shall not cohabit with a Singapore
Citizen or Permanent Resident.

10I shall not become pregnant
or deliver any child in Singapore
during the validity of my work permit or visit pass (applicable to females).

11I shall not engage in any
relationship with a Singapore
Citizen or Permanent Resident that will result in the birth of any child.

12I shall not indulge or be
involved in any illegal, immoral or undesirable activities including breaking
up families in Singapore.

-Excerpts from
"Conditions of Work Permit/Visit Pass for Foreign Worker," that migrant
domestic workers must sign and abide by during employment in Singapore

Singapore's
immigration policies and employment practices restrict domestic workers'
reproductive, marriage, and sexual rights. In contravention of international
human rights standards that protect the right of individuals to enter into
marriage freely, Singapore's
immigration policies prohibit migrant domestic workers from marrying or
cohabiting with Singaporean citizens or permanent residents. A clause allows
the Controller of Work Permits to grant permission for some couples to marry
upon application, but there is little awareness among domestic workers and some
officials from sending countries' embassies about this possibility.[288]
For those who do apply, approximately 15 percent of applications are
rejected-meaning domestic workers may spend years working in Singapore, and despite finding
partners, are unable to exercise their right to marry a Singaporean unless they
move to another country.[289]

Women migrant domestic workers undergo state-mandated
medical examinations every six months, including pregnancy and human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tests, whereas other foreign workers are subject
to medical examinations only once every two years. Immigration policies also
dictate that any domestic worker who is pregnant loses her job and faces
deportation. Misinformation about these policies, combined with restrictions on
domestic workers' movements have led to pregnant domestic workers facing
additional barriers to obtaining voluntary abortions and having the freedom to
make their own choices about continuing employment in Singapore.

The government denies migrant domestic workers marriage
rights in the name of controlling unemployment levels in Singapore. Officials from the
Ministry of Manpower told Human Rights Watch, "The marriage restriction measure
is needed to discourage a large pool of unskilled or lower skilled migrant
workforce from sinking roots in Singapore.
Given Singapore's
small size and limited resources, we are unable to support the long term
retention of a large and growing pool of foreign workers when their employment
has ceased."[290]
Employers, labor agents, and government officials also expressed an underlying
fear that foreign women, far from their families, pose a sexual and social
threat to Singaporean families. Hence, work permit regulations not only forbid
domestic workers from marrying Singaporeans, but also from "breaking up
families in Singapore."[291]

The fears underlying Singapore's attempted control of
domestic workers' sex lives and relationships do not justify violating their
rights to freely enter marriage and decide for themselves in matters relating
to their intimate lives. Indeed, Singapore's policies codify
stereotypes that employers often hold about domestic workers being promiscuous
and the biased rationales they use to justify restricting domestic workers'
freedom of movement. Many domestic workers said their employers treated them
with suspicion from the beginning of their employment. Nuriah Mahdi, a domestic
worker, said her employer, "was also very jealous.I could not greet my sir in the morning.She said, Nuriah [not her real name], don't
greet my husband."[292]
Another also told us of constant innuendos. Her employer said, "You cleaned the
house quickly, are you looking for compliments from my husband?"[293]
One Indian domestic worker's employer returned her to the agent on her first
day. She said,

The employer's wife picked a fight with me.She said, "why did you come to spoil the
family?Pack your bags and leave."I said, "I came for employment, not to break
up the family." I was in a difficult position.I asked, "Why did you ask me to come here, why are you asking me to
leave?"She sent me back to the agent.[294]

Confusion reigns about the wording in the work permit
conditions, which prohibits domestic workers from "becoming" pregnant. Many
employers, domestic workers, and employment agents interpret this clause to
mean that a domestic worker who becomes pregnant automatically loses her job
and must leave Singapore.Others believe the employers additionally
forfeit the S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950] bond. According to Human Rights Watch
interviews with Ministry of Manpower officials, the bond is forfeited only if a
domestic worker runs away from her place of employment. They also clarified
that a domestic worker may seek a voluntary abortion if she becomes pregnant
and then continue her employment.[295]
What is forbidden is to give birth in Singapore: officials told us that
domestic workers will be deported if they carry the pregnancy to term.

Misperceptions about the security bond and discriminatory
fears about domestic workers' sexual activity contributes to government,
employer, and labor agent resistance to days off and freedom of movement for
domestic workers. Many domestic workers echoed the statement of Budi Puspita,
who said, "They don't give me more off days, because they're worried that I
will get a boyfriend."[296]
One agent tells all domestic workers that she recruits, "Please remember you
came because of financial problems.If
looking for boyfriends, please leave.Be
a super maid."[297]

These practices infantilize adult women and assume they cannot
make independent and wise choices about their personal lives while balancing
work. One forty-two-year-old Filipina domestic worker who had been working in Singapore
for ten years said, "I am singlewe are working, we must follow the rules. The
employer pays a S$5,000 bond so maids won't get pregnant or married to a
Singaporean.I want to have a
boyfriend, but my employer says I cannot."[298]

Employers and labor agents interviewed by Human Rights Watch
repeatedly raised the S$5,000 bond as a rationale for forbidding their domestic
worker from dating and for controlling domestic workers' movements. One agent
said, "The day off, this is only an excuse.This is what employers say to me.They say, 'If my domestic worker gets pregnant, I will lose S$5,000.'"[299]

There is a widespread perception that the work permit
policies forbid domestic workers from obtaining abortions. In Singapore, abortion is legal until
the twenty-fourth week of gestation. An abortion provider said, "A lot of
employers are unaware that if their maid gets pregnant, she can get an abortion
in Singapore."[300]
Because of the misperceptions, domestic workers may fear being repatriated if
they get a legal abortion. Desperate to keep their jobs, they may turn to
illegal or unsafe abortion-providers. One agent told Human Rights Watch:

Abortion is illegal for maids....Sometimes we become the doctors ourselves, we
start buying the pills, mixing them with water!But if she has caused me trouble, then I repatriate her with the baby.[301]

Some domestic workers want an
abortion in order to continue employment in Singapore and others fear physical
violence and social stigma if they return to their home countries pregnant. In
the Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, abortion is either
completely banned or only permissible to save a woman's life.

A doctor who has provided abortions to domestic workers said
there are numerous obstacles that limit domestic workers' access to voluntary
abortions. He explained that, "The employer is very scared that the maid will
get pregnant.The moment they know, they
send them back to the Philippines
or Indonesia.The maid is scared to let the employer know
because she may get sent back[therefore] they often come too late.Four months, mid-trimester."[302]
The cost and limited time to leave the house and visit a clinic also prevent
some domestic workers from obtaining abortions.[303]

International law protects the
right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.[304]Article 12(1) of CEDAW prohibits discrimination
against women in the field of health care and obliges states to ensure equal
access to health care services.[305] Migrant
domestic workers who are unable to obtain voluntary abortions to end unwanted
pregnancies are being denied a range of rights protected under international
law, including the right to determine the number and spacing of their children
and the highest attainable standard of health.[306]

Government and Private Responses
to Abuse

Response of the Singapore Government

In response to the growing evidence of abuse in recent
years, Singapore
has taken important steps to reform its laws and policies. Response by the Singapore
government to the range of abuses described in this report includes mediation,
prosecution of abusive employers, raising public awareness, and for several
abuses, delegation to employment agencies and private service organizations.

The government response has included education programs for
domestic workers and employers. New domestic workers must attend an orientation
course which instructs them on safety procedures when cleaning windows and
advises them their employer may not demand they walk on ledges or stand on
chairs near windows. Employers are similarly advised. The Ministry of Manpower
has also created an awareness-raising video about detecting the signs of
depression among domestic workers. The English proficiency requirement
introduced in 2005 is viewed as a measure to facilitate better communication
between employers and migrant domestic workers.

The Singapore
government prosecuted several cases of abuse in 2004 and 2005. The majority of
these prosecutions involved assault and unpaid wages. These prosecutions serve
as powerful messages to employers and employment agents that they could face
severe penalties for abusing migrant domestic workers. One of the most
publicized cases in 2005 involved an employer charged with eighty counts of
abuse against her domestic worker.

In 2001, Zahara Abdul Lateef, a news anchor, was sentenced
to two months in prison after pouring boiling water on her nineteen-year-old
domestic worker.[307]
In 2002, a man who had deprived his domestic worker of food beat her to death.
He was sentenced to eighteen years and six months imprisonment plus twelve
lashes of the cane.[308]
An employer can face six months imprisonment and up to S$5,000 in fines for
breaching the Employment of Foreign Workers Act.

In October 2004, the Ministry of Manpower established a new
precedent by securing backwages through a criminal prosecution (see appendix D
for other prosecutions for salary default). The employer, Enilia Donohue, was
ordered to pay S$3,580 [U.S.$2,112] to her nineteen-year-old domestic worker
who had not been paid for almost two years.[309]
The court also ordered Donohue to pay a penalty of thirty-five months of levy,
S$12,075 [U.S.$7,547] for illegally employing the domestic worker and a S$3000
[U.S.$1,875] fine.[310]

While these strategies have been successful in several
cases, for many domestic workers, they fail to provide relief. For labor abuses
such as excessive working hours, lack of adequate rest days, and exploitative
wages, there are no government avenues for redress. Similarly, government
policies are responsible for some human rights violations like restrictions on
becoming pregnant. The government has failed to regulate employment agencies'
practices of charging increasingly high initial loans to migrant domestic
workers and setting discriminatory starting salaries based on national origin.

Important reforms-those that would ensure minimum standards
of working conditions-have been thus far rejected by the government. These
include amending the Employment Act to regulate hours of work, rest days, and
salary deductions, establishing a minimum wage, and tackling the exorbitant
debt payments exacted by labor agents. These steps are critical to prevent
exploitation, mental health problems like anxiety and depression, and to
provide workers with an opportunity to learn more about their rights and to
seek help when they confront abuse.

The government has an obligation to legislate minimum
standards, as it does for other workers, to prevent exploitation. Such
regulations can be adjusted to domestic work, for example, by specifying a
maximum number of work hours in a twenty-four hour period since they do not work
typical business hours. Hong Kong specifies
that domestic workers are entitled to at least one rest day every seven days.
This rest day is a continuous period of not less than twenty-four hours during
which an employee may abstain from working (see appendix B for the regulations
outlined in Hong Kong's employment contract
for domestic workers). These practices not only respect the rights of these
workers but recognize that rest is a critical component of competent
performance.

A continuing problem is providing complaint-mechanisms
accessible to migrant domestic workers, given tight restrictions on their
movement. The absence of workplace inspectors or an effective monitoring system
of employment agencies compounds the likelihood that many abuses never go
reported at all. Poor regulation of recruitment fees and burdensome debts borne
by migrant domestic workers also creates an environment where they fear
reporting abuses because of the pressure they feel to repay their debts and
finish their two-year contracts. The lack of rest days and freedom of movement
mean that many migrant domestic workers also have limited access to their
embassies, private organizations, or peers who can provide them with
information about their rights and alternatives for seeking assistance.

The Ministry of Manpower refers many of the complaints that
do come to its attention for mediation. These consultations typically involve a
labor official from the Ministry of Manpower, the migrant domestic worker, her
employer, and her employment agent. Most of the complaints handled by the
mediation unit involve unpaid wages. At times, a representative of the domestic
worker's embassy will also be present.

An examination of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch
and by some private service organizations show that while mediation focuses on
unpaid wages, the migrant domestic worker had often suffered a range of abuses
such as excessive workload, psychological abuse, and restrictions on her
movement that were not addressed. Furthermore, in many of these cases, the
final settlement was a compromise in which the domestic worker waived her right
to part of her earnings in exchange for the ability to transfer to another
employer or to hasten the case's resolution.

The Ministry of Manpower handled 189 cases of unpaid wages
to domestic workers in 2002, 214 cases in 2003, and 262 cases in 2004.[311]
A Ministry of Manpower official said that approximately 80 percent of these
cases are resolved through conciliation involving payments, but was not able to
provide information on how many cases resulted in full restitution.[312]
The aggregate sum of recovered wages each year has averaged S$80,000
[U.S.$50,000].[313]
This amount averages S$305 [U.S.$190] per case.

In many cases reviewed by Human Rights Watch, migrant
domestic workers agreed to accept far less money than they were owed.As outsiders in Singapore facing substantial
financial pressures, and with little evidence to draw on in disputes but their
own word (there are rarely witnesses), such workers often feel they have no
choice but to accept a partial sum, a return ticket home, or permission to
transfer employers.Aid organizations
also note that many employers fail to show up for conciliation hearings,
prolonging the time that a domestic worker is left unemployed.

One domestic worker told us her employer borrowed money from
her savings. She said, "At the Ministry of Manpower, I said, 'I want to go
home.' I cried. I told my employer, 'if you don't give me the S$200 [U.S.$118]
I had saved, never mind, but give me at least S$400 [U.S.$236]'.For me it's a lot.I know for her it's very little, but for me,
it's a lot.MOM said, [a settlement of]
S$200 is okay.Next time you can find a
good employer.'"[314]

Several problems continue to plague the criminal justice
response to migrant domestic worker abuse. One problem that hampers
prosecutions is the difficulty in collecting evidence in situations that often
turns into one person's word against another. Human Rights Watch reviewed
dozens of cases in which domestic workers registered complaints with the
police. In numerous cases, the police dropped charges against employers because
they were unable to collect enough evidence to continue the investigation. Food
deprivation, unpaid wages, and physical abuse such as slapping and pinching are
more difficult to prove than physical assault that leaves bruises and scars.

Despite the fact some employers forbid domestic workers from
leaving the house, at times locking them in, prosecutions are rare. According
to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there were three reported cases of wrongful
confinement between January and September 2005. "Of the 3 cases, one offender
was warned while no further action was taken in the others as both parties did
not want to pursue the matter further."[315]

Singapore
law protects the right to liberty[316]
and along with other criminal offenses against domestic workers such as
physical or sexual assault, forced confinement is subject to 1.5 times the
penalty normally applied.[317]
Interviewees suggested the authorities narrowly define "forced confinement." As
one foreign embassy official told us: "Forced confinement is a tactics
issue.Employers say, 'I'm not locking
her up.I didn't force her.For security reasons, I didn't let her
out.'I have not known of any successful
case of [prosecuting] illegal confinement."[318]

Finally, migrant domestic workers must wait for several
months and often more than a year for investigations and trials to conclude.
Many domestic workers staying at the shelters of their embassies and in private
service organizations expressed intense anxiety and frustration for having to
wait so long without an income. These long waiting periods can dissuade other
migrant domestic workers with complaints from coming forward because they would
rather transfer to another employer or return to their home country. The
Ministry of Manpower approves applications for migrant domestic workers who are
abuse victims or acting as witnesses in criminal proceedings to seek new
employment, but aid organizations and embassies report that such women often
have difficulty finding employers willing to hire them. Others may be too
traumatized and scared to find another employer.

For example, one domestic worker had been locked inside of
her workplace and was mistreated by her employers for more than two years
before a joint operation involving the police, the Ministry of Manpower, and an
aid organization freed her. She later withdrew her statement to the police so
that no criminal charges would be pressed against her employers and she could
return to her family in Indonesia
as soon as possible. Her retractions made her subject to allegations that she
was making false complaints against her employer. Those who are countercharged
with making false allegations may get blacklisted and barred from working in Singapore
in the future. Bridget Lew of H.O.M.E. said that in about half of the cases she
handles, the migrant domestic worker does not want to pursue a complaint with
the police given the challenge of providing adequate evidence of abuse and the
long waiting periods for cases to be concluded.[319]

A spokesperson at the Sri Lanka High Commission described
another case in which a migrant domestic worker waited for one year for her
case to be investigated. During this period she had no salary and became so
desperate that she reached the point of attempting suicide. In the end, the
case against her employer was dropped as the police concluded there was
inadequate evidence to pursue it any further.[320]

Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who had
widely divergent experiences when seeking assistance from the police. In several
instances, the police provided immediate help, made referrals for health care
and shelter, and conducted investigations into the abuse. In severe cases of
abuse, the police teamed up with the Ministry of Manpower to conduct "rescues"
of domestic workers unable to leave their place of employment.

In other cases, police dismissed the complaints of domestic
workers and sent them back to their employer or labor agent, very often the
same individuals the domestic worker accused of abuse. An official from the
embassy of a sending country said, "If girls go to them-unless there is
physical evidence-they call the employer and send the girl back to them.Very rarely do they look to see if there is
truth to the complaint.They can't be
bothered."[321]
Ani Khadijah, a domestic worker hit by her employer, said:

I ran away.I went
to the police station.The policeman
talked to me and said, "Never mind, go home to your employer."The police asked me if I want to work here or
go to Indonesia.I said I wanted to work here."If you want to work here, you have to go to
your agent."I refused to go to my agent
because she was naughty.[322]

Bridget Lew, director of H.O.M.E., an organization that aids
migrant workers, explained that when a domestic worker complains to the police,
the police will often call the employer and agent to hear their side of the
story. They might ask the domestic worker if she is willing to return to them.
At that point, "the girl will say yes, sir, yes, sir. Why? Because she's
afraid. The police officer is Singaporean and she thinks he is on the side of
the agent and employer. He is in uniform and may scare her."[323]
She noted one of the most important strategies is to have individuals from the Philippines or Indonesia available to explain
domestic workers' rights and options to them in their own languages.

The Singapore
government has increased cooperation with nongovernmental organizations to
provide services to abused migrant workers. The government has also tried to
engage the media to bring greater attention to prosecutions of employers who
assault or fail to pay their domestic worker. In conjunction with the Philippines, the Ministry of Manpower has been
financially supporting the BayanihanCenter, an institution
providing weekend courses to domestic workers. The director of H.O.M.E., an
organization specializing in aiding abused migrant workers said:

I tell my staff, let me know of cases of injustice.I e-mail people at the top [of the Ministry
of Manpower] and they reopen the case.This is the kind of relationship we have with MOM [Ministry of Manpower].I have achieved a very constructive
dialogue.They're open to feedback from
me even if the feedback is negative or embarrassing.[324]

Despite these improvements, other advocates and
organizations were afraid of critiquing the Ministry of Manpower publicly and
had mixed experiences interacting with the government. Migrant workers'
advocates and sending countries' diplomats expressed frustration with the long
processing time of legal complaints and the resolution of disputes through
mediation or settlements often at a disadvantage to migrant domestic workers.
They also criticized the Singapore
government's unwillingness to incorporate sending countries' regulations on
migrant workers into their own standards, for example the Philippines and Sri Lankan policies
of banning direct recruitment.

Migrant workers' advocates and some employment agents in Singapore
have suggested reducing the levy to facilitate employers' ability to pay higher
wages to domestic workers. They have also recommended the government direct
monies into services for domestic workers or for financial bonuses to reward
domestic workers who complete two-year contracts.

The government sends mixed messages about the relationship
between domestic workers' wages and payment of the government levy. Ministry of
Manpower officials told Human Rights Watch, "The relationship between the levy
and wages is a weak one.We lowered the
levy, and it actually caused a lowering of wages.[It depends on] what a worker is willing to
work for, if we set a minimum wage, there will be incentive to cheat."[325]
On the other hand, when they announced a lowering of the levy in February 2005,
they said the, "levy reduction will help employers pay more for better quality
FDWs [foreign domestic workers] as the savings would help to offset the higher
salaries of the FDWs."[326]

The levy is paid through the "GIRO" system,[327]
which automatically deducts the levy from an employers' bank account each
month. Migrant workers' advocates and some officials from sending countries
criticized the Singaporean's divergent response to employers who defaulted on
levy payments compared to domestic workers who had been underpaid. As a result
of the GIRO system, the government is able to identify a defaulting employer
immediately, and will move swiftly to collect the missing levy, remove the
domestic worker, or impose penalties. Conversely, effective mechanisms to
report and collect unpaid wages are not yet in place. The government is
currently exploring ways to link migrant domestic workers to the GIRO system.

The Singapore
government regulates employment agencies though the Employment Agencies
Act.The other principal mechanism for
monitoring employment agencies is a required accreditation from the Association
of Employment Agencies in Singapore (AEAS) or CASETrust, a consumer rights
organization. The Employment Agency and Licensing Branch (EALB) oversees the
licensing of employment agencies and enforces the Employment Agencies Act.
Thirteen employment agencies faced prosecution in the second half of 2005.[328]

The Employment Agency and Licensing Branch responds to
complaints lodged against employment agencies. However, it does not use other
legal tools at its disposal to curb abuses committed by employment agencies.
These include workplace inspections and imposing limits on recruitment fees.
The law also permits the government to enter and inspect employment agencies
and their documents.[329]
Such inspections do not take place routinely and generally occur only as a
result of complaints. The Employment Agencies Act stipulates that, "The
Minister may make rules for carrying out the purposes of this Act and in
particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing powers he
may make rules to prescribe.the fees
payable to licensees by applicants for employment and applicants for workers."[330]
Government regulation of agency fees and the "private loans" extended by
employment agents to workers are necessary to avoid exploitation of domestic
workers who pay high recruitment and placement fees and whose resulting
indebtedness place them at greater risk of abuse.

Response of Sending Countries

Sending countries have a mixed record responding to abuse of
migrant domestic workers. Through the Philippines Overseas Employment
Administration [POEA] and an active diplomatic corps in Singapore, the Philippines
government has built relatively strong protections into its recruitment and
placement systems, and has helped support domestic workers' organizations in Singapore.
Other countries like India
have barely instituted a monitoring system.

The most common strategies for defending domestic workers'
rights among the major sending countries include accreditation programs for
employment agencies, issuing standard employment contracts, and creating
shelters and referral programs in embassies for domestic workers who experience
abuse.

Accreditation programs for employment agencies typically
require agencies to register, have a minimum financial base, and use
government-approved standard employment contracts.[331]
Typically, there are few or no provisions addressing treatment of domestic workers,
fees agencies can charge, conditions of recruitment and placement, or minimum
levels of expertise or qualifications employment agents should have. Labor
ministries in sending countries often have no regular system in place to
monitor employment agencies, for example, through unannounced inspections or
program audits.

Embassies in Singapore
play a significant role in responding to the problems confronted by migrant
workers who have left their employers. The Philippines,
Sri Lanka,
and Indonesian embassies all have staff responsible for processing labor
complaints, liaising with the Ministry of Manpower, and helping to secure legal
and medical aid if necessary.[332]
The Philippines Embassy said they receive, "less than ten cases per day.Yesterday, [there were] seven cases.Police cases include physical abuse,
molestation, outraging modesty."[333]
When domestic workers approach their embassy with cases of severe physical
abuse, sexual abuse, and unpaid wages, they are often able to secure some
assistance. However, critical gaps remain. Pertiwisari, an Indonesian domestic
worker who sustained bruises from her employer's abuse, told Human Rights
Watch:

When I spoke with the embassy staff, they asked what was
wrong with my hand. I said I was beaten by my employer.They said, "okay, later your agent will fetch
you."I protested, "my agent doesn't
want to help me, if I don't go back to the employer and pay, they will send me
to Batam."I had S$10 [U.S.$6] so I
asked a taxi to take me to the police.They took me to the hospital and took pictures and filed a case against
the employer.[334]

Domestic workers who encounter problems with working
conditions such as too many hours of work, excessive workload, or verbal abuse
are sometimes successful in seeking assistance from their embassies. For
example, migrants' rights advocates say the Sri Lanka High Commission takes
quick action:"They send a letter right
away, one letter to MOM [Ministry of Manpower]. They ensure no one can
repatriate the maid or cancel the work permit."[335]

A recurring problem among the embassies of sending countries
and the Singapore
government is the referral of domestic workers with complaints back to the
employment agency. In some cases, the agent may have also been implicated in
threatening or abusing the domestic worker. In other situations, the agent does
not have the authority to respond to complaints adequately and may respond by
finding the domestic worker another employer, often charging transfer fees and
high room and board costs. The Filipino embassy and the Sri Lanka High
Commission will only call employment agents if they have been accredited
according to the requirements of those countries' regulations. One employment
agent said, "I am not accredited with the Filipino embassy.They won't call me [if a worker I placed runs
away to their shelter], they only call accredited agencies."[336]
Another employment agent said of the Indonesian embassy:

They don't really help girls seriously.Whenever there is a runaway maid, they'll
just call me up and tell me, "your maid is here," unless there are signs of
physical abuse.[337]

The Indonesian and Filipino embassies have created shelters
to house migrant workers while they arrange their paperwork to leave the
country, process complaints with MOM, or wait for the completion of criminal
prosecutions. The Sri Lanka High Commission has no shelter but sometimes refers
domestic workers to private local shelters. We interviewed some domestic
workers who had stayed in embassy shelters as well as aid workers at private
shelters. These interviews suggested that embassy personnel often failed to
pursue full investigations. In a candid interview, an official from the Sri
Lanka High Commission said:

Many of them call.We don't encourage them to come.It's a matter of leaving employers.If they are in desperate circumstances, they do come.We don't have a hotline.[338]

The embassies also play an important role in fostering
domestic workers' organizations and training programs. Some embassies have
courses on-site, while others support private organizations. The most
well-known is the BayanihanCenter, a program that
offers domestic workers certificate programs in skills ranging from nursing to
martial arts. The Philippines
embassy contributes financially to the Bayanihan center, widely seen as a model
for providing domestic workers with opportunities to upgrade their skills.

The Singapore
government has not cooperated with sending countries on key issues. For
example, the Philippines
government would like Singapore
to require that Filipina domestic workers sign the POEA contract, which
guarantees one rest day per week, a minimum wage, and caps on recruitment fees,
before approving their work permits:

We have been asking, is it possible that Singapore
requires the POEA contract before issuing the in-principle approvalBoth the
requirements of the Filipino and Singaporean governments would have to be
complied with.Now it's just Singapore's.[339]

Response of Employment Agencies

Some employment agencies work closely with MOM, embassies,
and the police in addressing abuses, while others are the source of additional
abuse and exploitation. Accreditation criteria for both AEAS and CASETrust
include guidelines for resolving and documenting disputes.

Private organizations and embassies suggested that some
employment agencies do take complaints of abuse seriously and try to resolve
problems with the welfare of both the domestic worker and the employer in mind.
One agent said she handles complaints by asking the parties to come in for
mediation. "We check the maid's side, the employer's side.If the employer calls, we say bring the maid
and come to us."[340]
One agent suggested, "Agents need to do a routine visit to the maid to know her
conditions, to know if she is getting hit.They must go to the house. Agents shouldn't trust employers too much."[341]

The Association of Employment Agencies in Singapore [AEAS] has been exploring
reforms and has an active executive committee. One of their primary goals is to
improve and professionalize the industry.[342]
They told Human Rights Watch that employment standards "should be more
specific, the poor girls should be given off days, compulsory eight hours of
rest.We are dealing with households.Everyone claims to be a good employer, but
there is no benchmark."[343]

Many employment agents and aid organizations expressed
skepticism about the ability of AEAS and CaseTrust to truly monitor and enforce
the accreditation system. A major criticism is that the two bodies-an
organization of employment agencies and a consumer rights organization
protecting employers-may have conflicts of interest that prevent them from
promoting the rights of migrant domestic workers fully. Implementation may also
be spotty. For example, accreditation criteria require employment agents to
conduct house visits in the domestic worker's initial period of deployment to
check on how the employer and domestic worker are adjusting. Only one of the
twelve employment agents interviewed by Human Rights Watch engaged in such
checks, feeling this practice would drive away employer clients and is too
time-intensive. Domestic workers and aid organizations also commented that this
practice was not regularly implemented.

A representative from CASETrust, a consumer rights
organization, told Human Rights Watch that his organization's role of
accrediting employment agencies and resolving disputes was primarily to be
advocates for employers. He said, "We focus more on employers who feel they are
cheated by employment agencies.If there
are other questions, they can go to the embassies.They have centers where abused maids go."[344]

Response of Civil Society and Faith-Based
Organizations

Private organizations have created shelters, skills
programs, and advocacy campaigns to meet the needs of migrant domestic workers
who have been failed by other institutions. These groups vary in their mission
and the services offered.

Faith-based institutions play a critical role providing
immediate assistance to domestic workers who escape from abusive workplaces and
agents and in setting up other services for domestic workers. In Singapore,
where the government has often clamped down on freedom of expression and
freedom of association, civil society is weaker than in other countries in the
region. In a number of areas, faith-based initiatives have filled the gap.

This is most notable among the Filipinas, where Catholic
church-based organizations have played a pioneering role in creating skills
awareness programs for workers on weekends, providing emergency food and shelter,
and facilitating legal aid. As greater numbers of Indonesians and Sri Lankans
have started to work in Singapore,
mosques and Buddhist temples have also provided programs for migrant domestic
workers, including religious education and recreational activities.

These organizations have primarily focused on providing
services and have not engaged in advocacy to change government policies. Two
recently formed non-governmental organizations have started to do this work.
H.O.M.E. provides referral services, shelter, income-generating opportunities,
and legal aid to abused migrant workers. It helps workers navigate the justice
system in Singapore
and has been cultivating a working relationship with the Ministry of Manpower
and sending countries' embassies to respond to cases of abuse. A second
organization, Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), has focused its energies on
raising public awareness and policy advocacy. Past activities have included a
campaign calling for a day off and a photography exhibit showing domestic
workers on their day off to help dispel stereotypes about how they spend their
free time.

Innovative methods of peer support include an informal
24-hour "hotline" operated by Indonesian domestic workers themselves. Typically
more experienced workers with relatively good employment situations, they pass
out tiny scraps of paper with their mobile phone numbers to domestic workers
they encounter in apartment complexes and markets.

Response of Regional and International Institutions

Labor migration-which has consequences for economic growth,
immigration policy, social structure, and human rights-has become an important
area of concern for governments, regional bodies, and multilateral institutions
worldwide. Several international organizations have undertaken research and
advocacy on migrant domestic workers regionally, including the International
Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Program for Women
(UNIFEM), and the World Bank.

The ILO and anti-trafficking organizations have examined the
ways in which abusive labor practices may result in forced labor or
trafficking. The ILO released a global report on forced labor around the world
in 2005, estimating that over 22 million people around world are in forced
labor, most of them in Asia. It highlighted
that migrant domestic workers are at risk for forced labor and for trafficking,
and is creating programs to address these issues in Southeast
Asia. UNIFEM has worked with governments to create better
practices and help Jordan negotiate a bilateral labor agreement on migrant
domestic workers with Indonesia
and to create a standard employment contract. The CEDAW Committee is developing
a recommendation on women migrants.

Governments in the region have started to meet regularly to
discuss issues like human trafficking and some have brokered bilateral labor
agreements to implement standard employment contracts and to outline
recruitment procedures. Despite the large flows of migrants from Indonesia,
Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka to countries in Asia and the Middle East,
there has been little attempt by regional bodies such as ASEAN to create
minimum regional standards that could help prevent a "race to the bottom" where
labor-sending countries compete with each other by offering fewer labor
protections.

In recognition of the abuses that migrants face and their
heightened vulnerability by working and living in countries other than their
own, the United Nations created a major international human rights treaty, the
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members
of Their Families (Migrant Workers Convention). The Migrant Workers Convention
was finalized in 1990 and came into force with twenty-one ratifications on July 1, 2003. While several
labor-sending countries such as the Philippines
and Sri Lanka have ratified
the convention, most labor-receiving countries, including Singapore, have not agreed to be
bound by the convention.[345]
The convention protects migrants' equality before the law, and a range of civil,
political, social, economic, and cultural rights.

The United Nations has established the Global Commission on
International Migration to study how to improve cooperation among the United
Nations and other international agencies on migration issues. The United
Nations General Assembly will hold a high-level dialogue in December 2006 to
address migration and development, with the stated goal of maximizing its
positive development impact and avoiding negative consequences.

Conclusion

The government of Singapore has a choice. It has
taken important steps to provide protections for migrant domestic workers and
now has the opportunity to become a regional and global leader in setting
standards that respect the rule of law and advance human rights. If it believes
current measures are adequate and does nothing more, however, it will be
condemning more domestic workers in Singapore to discrimination,
exploitation, and abuse.

Singapore
has demonstrated commitment to enforcing the legal protections that already exist,
including those on physical assault and unpaid wages. Officials have undertaken
a number of new initiatives which demonstrate a desire to create a
well-functioning, mutually beneficial labor arrangement between Singaporean
employers and migrant domestic workers. Yet a system that excludes a class of
workers from labor protections, leaving them to work for sixteen hours a day,
seven days a week, for pitifully low wages is one that demands serious and
meaningful reform. A system that allows employment agencies to pass huge costs
on to domestic workers to the point where some face conditions akin to forced
labor or debt bondage requires government intervention and regulation.

Recommendations

To the Singapore Government

Amending the Employment Act and Workmen's
Compensation Act to provide equal protection to domestic workers,
including regulations on rest days, hours of work, salary deductions,
termination of contracts, and compensation for workplace injuries and
occupational illnesses.

Establishing and periodically reviewing a national
minimum wage to address domestic workers' vulnerability to wage
exploitation. The National Wages Council should also investigate and
recommend policies that promote equal pay for equal work in the domestic
work sector.

Creating a standard contract that protects migrant
domestic workers' rights in accordance with national provisions in the
Employment Act and international labor standards, and in consultation with
migrant workers' groups, sending countries, employment agencies, and the
International Labor Organization.

Revising the work permit regulations so that domestic
workers are no longer forbidden from becoming pregnant and have complete
and equal access to health care, including to health information,
contraception, and abortion services.

Changing work permit regulations to protect migrant
domestic workers' right to marry.

Increasing enforcement of the Employment Agencies Act
to ensure compliance with caps on agency fees.

Implementing policies so that migrant domestic
workers do not spend several months working off their debts with little or
no pay, a situation that fosters a range of human rights abuses. The
government should look to the Philippines
and Hong Kong, who require employers to pay for round-trip airfare and most
expenses associated with recruitment and placement, including those now
covered by private loans in Singapore. The Singapore
government should consider adjusting the monthly levy to offset the cost
to employers.

Abolishing the S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950] security bond.

Investigating cost-effective ways to open bank
accounts for migrant domestic workers and for employers to pay wages
automatically each month.

Revising policies that allow employers to repatriate
migrant domestic workers at will and that require a domestic worker to
obtain her employer's permission before transferring to another employer.

Changing work permit conditions so that migrant
domestic workers have the option of residing in independent living
quarters from their employers.

Create and improve
mechanisms to prevent, monitor, and respond to abuse of migrant domestic
workers, by:

Inspecting workplace conditions regularly, for
example, through visits and private interviews with migrant domestic
workers. They should coordinate with migrant workers' groups, employment
agencies, and the police.

Monitoring employment agencies more rigorously.
Create a new accreditation body that includes representatives from
employment agencies, consumer rights organizations, domestic workers'
rights organizations, the Ministry of Manpower, and sending countries.
Revise accreditation criteria to create more detailed and comprehensive
standard employment contracts, rules on agency fees, and procedures for
resolving and reporting problems.

Creating helpdesks at the airport and main police
stations with staff fluent in the primary languages spoken by migrant
workers. Implement training programs for police officers and immigration
officials to identify and respond to domestic workers' abuse
complaints.The police should have
a protocol for handling cases of abuse including immediate health care and
social service referrals.

Recruiting more police staff proficient in the
predominant languages spoken by migrant workers, including Bahasa
Indonesia, Tagalog, Sinhalese, and Tamil.

Allowing greater flexibility in the types of work
that domestic workers can perform while waiting for the completion of an
investigation into a labor complaint or criminal prosecution to provide
them alternative employment possibilities.

Prosecuting employers and employment agents who
violate the rights of domestic workers according to national laws,
including for forced confinement. Provide civil remedies, including
monetary damages that migrant domestic workers can pursue.

Disseminating information on domestic workers' rights
and the obligations of labor agents, employers, and governments through
the media, cooperation with faith-based and private migrants'
organizations, and partnerships with sending countries' governments.

The National Trades Union Congress should create a
campaign to organize migrant domestic workers, underscoring the need for
them to have days off to do so.

Sign and ratify major
international human rights treaties setting forth the rights of migrants.Comply with treaty-body reporting
requirements.

Ratify the Convention on the Protection of the Rights
of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Migrant Workers
Convention); the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (United Nations
Trafficking Protocol); the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR); and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

To the Governments of Indonesia, the Philippines,
Sri Lanka,
and Other Labor-Sending Countries

Establishing
mechanisms for regular and independent monitoring of labor agencies,
including unannounced inspections.

To Employment Agencies and Accrediting Bodies

Report
cases of abuse to MOM [Ministry of Manpower], the police, embassies, and
accreditation bodies.

Implement
a standard employment contract that establishes detailed protections on
wages, hours of work, days off, salary deductions, rest leave, airfare,
and other terms of employment according to national provisions in the
Employment Act and international labor standards.

Create
professional development courses for employment agents.

Monitor
the wellbeing of the domestic worker through phone calls and spot visits,
especially during the first three months of employment.

Create
recommended pay scales according to work experience and other
qualifications, such as education. Abolish discriminatory policies that
determine entry-level wages according to nationality rather than work
experience, education, or other relevant criteria.

Exercise
due diligence before placing a replacement domestic worker with an
employer accused of abuse.

To International Donors and Organizations

Provide
resources for strengthening the capacity of research and advocacy
organizations working on behalf of migrant workers, especially those
focusing on female domestic workers.

Raise
attention to the abuses faced by migrant domestic workers in bilateral and
multilateral meetings with the governments that receive or send migrant
workers.Press for the reforms
recommended above.

The
Global Commission on International Migration should address in detail the
situation of migrant domestic workers in its research, consultations, and
recommendations.

The
International Labor Organization should ensure substantial attention to
domestic workers when implementing its plan of action on migrant workers
adopted in June 2004.The ILO
should also create model bilateral/multilateral labor agreements and model
standard contracts for domestic workers to aid governments undertaking
reforms.

To the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)

Create
a working group to study regional labor migration and formulate
recommendations, including for multilateral agreements on labor standards
and protections for migrant domestic workers.

We greatly appreciate the insightful comments on an early
version of our main findings provided by Cher Pong Ng, Kenneth Yap, and Wing
Git Chan from the Ministry of Manpower, Singapore,
Bridget Lew from H.O.M.E., Singapore,
and other reviewers who wished to remain anonymous.

We are grateful to the many individuals and organizations
that facilitated this research.Special
thanks go to H.O.M.E. and Amy Darul for their assistance in arranging
interviews and providing information. We would also like to acknowledge Amy
Darul, Andita Primanti, and Ammaniammal Adimulam for interpreting.

Human Rights Watch sincerely thanks all of the individuals
who agreed to be interviewed for this report.Their willingness to share information and their experiences with us
made this report possible.

The Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch gratefully
acknowledges the financial support of the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Trust, the
Sigrid Rausing Foundation, the Moriah Fund, the Libra Foundation, the
Silverleaf Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Barbra Streisand Foundation, the
Schooner Foundation, the Banky-LaRocque Foundation, and the members of the
Advisory Committee of the Women's Rights Division.

This contract is made between
("the Employer", holder of Hong Kong Identity Card/Passport No.*..)
and .("the Helper") on ... and has the following terms:

1. The
Helper's place of origin for the purpose of this contract is ........

2. (a) The
Helper shall be employed by the Employer as a domestic helper for a period of
two years commencing on the date on which the Helper arrives in Hong Kong.

(b)The Helper shall be employed by the Employer as a domestic helper for a
period of two years commencing on .., which is the date following the
expiry of D.H. Contract No. . for employment under this contract.

(c)The Helper shall be employed by the Employer as a domestic helper for a
period of two years commencing on the date on which the Director of Immigration
grants the Helper permission to remain in Hong Kong
to begin employment under this contract.

3.The Helper shall work and reside in the
Employer's residence at .

4.(a)The Helper shall only perform domestic duties
as per the attached

Schedule of
Accommodation and Domestic Duties for the Employer.

(b)The Helper shall not take up, and shall not be required by the Employer
to take up, any other employment with any other person.

(c)The Employer and the Helper hereby acknowledge that Clause 4 (a) and (b)
will form part of the conditions of stay to be imposed on the Helper by the
Immigration Department upon the Helper's admission to work in Hong Kong under
this contract.A breach of one or both
of the said conditions of stay will render the Helper and/or any aider and
abettor liable to criminal prosecution.

5.(a) The Employer shall pay the Helper wages
of HK$...................... per month.The amount of wages shall not be less than the minimum allowable wage
announced by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and
prevailing at the date of this contract.An employer who fails to pay the wages due under this employment
contract shall be liable to criminal prosecution.

(b)The Employer shall provide the Helper with suitable and furnished
accommodation as per the attached Schedule of Accommodation and Domestic Duties
and food free of charge.If no food is
provided, a good allowance of HKS $ .a month shall be paid to the
Helper.

(c)The Employer shall provide a receipt for wages and food allowance and
the Helper shall acknowledge receipt of the amount under his/her* signature.

6.The Helper shall be entitled to all rest
days, statutory holidays, and paid annual leave as specified in the Employment
Ordinance, Chapter 57.

7.(a)The Employer shall provide the Helper with free passage from his/her*
place of origin to Hong Kong and on
termination or expiry of this contract, free return passage to his/her* place
of origin.

(b)A
daily food and traveling allowance to HK$100 per day shall be paid to the
Helper from the date of his/her* place of origin until the date of his/her*
arrival at Hong Kong if the traveling is by
the most direct route.The same payment
shall be made when the Helper returns to his/her* place of origin upon expiry
or termination of this contract.

8.The Employer shall be responsible for the
following fees and expenses (if any) for the departure of the Helper from
his/her place of origin and entry into Hong Kong:

(i) medical examination fees;

(ii) authentication fees by the
relevant Consulate;

(iiii) visa fee;

(iv) insurance fee;

(v) administration fee or fee
such as the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration fee, or other fees
of similar nature imposed by the relevant government authorities; and

(vi) others:
.

In the event
that the Helper has paid the above costs or fees, the Employer shall fully
reimburse the Helper forthwith the amount so paid by the Helper upon demand and
production of the corresponding receipts or documentary evidence of
payment.

9.(a)In
the event that the Helper is ill or suffers personal injury during the period
of employment specified in Clause 2, except for the period during which the
Helper leaves Hong Kong of his/her* own volition and for his/her* own personal
purposes, the Employer shall provide free medical treatment to the Helper.Free medical treatment includes medical
consultation, maintenance in hospital and emergency dental treatment.The Helper shall accept medical treatment
provided by any registered medical practitioner.

(b)If the Helper suffers injury by accident or occupational disease arising
out of and in the course of employment, the Employer shall make payment of
compensation in accordance with the Employees' Compensation Ordinance, Chapter
282.

(c)In
the event of a medical practitioner certifying that the Helper is unfit for
further service, the Employer may subject to the statutory provisions of the
relevant Ordinances terminate the employment and shall immediately take steps
to repatriate the Helper to his/her* place of origin in accordance with Clause
7.

10.Either party may terminate this contract by
giving one month's notice in writing or one month's wages in lieu of notice.

11.Notwithstanding Clause 10, either party may
in writing terminate this contract without notice or payment in lieu in the
circumstances permitted by the Employment Ordinance, Chapter 57.

12.In the event of termination of this contract,
both the Employer and the Helper shall give the Director of Immigration notice
in writing within seven days of the date of termination.A copy of the other party's written
acknowledgement of the termination shall also be forwarded to the Director of
Immigration.

13.Should both parties agree to enter into new
contract upon expiry of the existing contract, the Helper shall, before any
such further period commences and at the expense of the Employer, return to
his/her* place of origin for a paid/unpaid* vacation of not less than seven
days, unless prior approval for extension of stay in Hong Kong is given by the
Director of Immigration.

14.In the event of the death of the Helper, the
Employer shall pay the cost of transporting the Helper's remains and personal
property from Hong Kong to his/her* place of origin.

15.Save for the following variations, any
variation or addition to the terms of this contract (including the annexed
Schedule of Accommodation and Domestic Duties) during its duration shall be
void unless made with the prior consent of the Commissioner for Labour in Hong Kong:

(a)a
variation of the period of employment stated in Clause 2 through an extension
of the said period of not more than one month by mutual agreement and with
prior approval obtained from the Director of Immigration;

(b)a
variation of the Employer's residential address stated in Clause 3 upon
notification in writing being given to the Director of Immigration, provided
that the Helper shall continue to work and reside in the Employer's new
residential address;

(c)a
variation in the Schedule of Accommodation and Domestic Duties made in such
manner as prescribed under item 6 of the Schedule of Accommodation and Domestic
Duties; and

(d)a
variation of item 4 of the Schedule of Accommodation and Domestic Duties in
respect of driving of a motor vehicle, whether or not the vehicle belongs to
the Employer, by the helper by mutual agreement in the form of an Addendum to
the Schedule and with permission in writing given by the Director of
Immigration for the Helper to perform the driving duties.

16.The above terms do not preclude the Helper
from other entitlements under the Employment Ordinance, Chapter 57, the
Employees' Compensation Ordinance, Chapter 282 and any other relevant
Ordinances.

17.The Parties hereby declare that the Helper
has been medically examined as to his/her fitness for employment as a domestic
helper and his/her medical certificate has been produced for inspection by the
Employer.

Signed
by the Employer ____________________

(Signature of Employer)

in the
presence of ___________________________________

(Name of Witness)(Signature of Witness)

Signed
by the Helper ____________________

(Signature of Helper)

in the
presence of _______________
_____________________

(Name of Witness)(Signature of Witness)

*Delete
where inappropriate.

SCHEDULE OF
ACCOMODATION AND DOMESTIC DUTIES

1. Both the
Employer and the Helper should sign to acknowledge that they have read the
contents of this Schedule, and to confirm their consent for the Immigration
Department and other relevant government authorities to collect anduse the information contained in accordance
with the provisions of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

Employer's residence and number
of persons to be served

Approximate size of
flat/house. square feet/square metres*

State below the number of
persons in the household to be served on a regular basis:

(Note: Number of Helpers currently employed by the employer
to serve the household.)

Accommodation and facilities to
be provided to the helper

Accommodation to the Helper

While the average flat size in Hong Kong is relatively small
and the availability of separate servant room is not common, the Employer
should provide the Helper suitable accommodation and with reasonable privacy.
Examples of unsuitable accommodation are: The Helper having to sleep on made-do
beds in the corridor with little private and sharing a room with an
adult/teenager of the opposite sex.

___ Yes. Estimated size of the servant roomsquare
feet/square metres*

___ No. Sleeping arrangements for the Helper:

___
Share a room with child/children aged

___
Separate partitioned area of .. square feet/square metres*

___
Others. Please describe .

Facilities to be provided to
the Helper:

(Note: Application for entry visa will normally not be
approved if the essential facilities from item (a) to (f) are not provided
free.)

1.Light
and water supply__
Yes __ No

2.Toilet
and bathing facilities __
Yes __ No

3.Bed__ Yes __ No

4.Blanket
or quilt__ Yes __ No

5.Pillows__ Yes __ No

6.Wardrobe__ Yes __ No

7.Refrigerator__ Yes __ No

8.Desk__ Yes __ No

9.Other
facilities (please specify)____________

The Helper should only perform
domestic duties at the Employer's residence. Domestic duties to be
performed by the Helper under this contract exclude driving of a motor
vehicle belongs to the Employer.

Domestic duties include the duties listed
below.

Major Portion of domestic duties:-

1.Household
chores

2.Cooking

3.Looking
after aged persons in the household (constant care or attention is required/not
required*)

4.Babysitting

5.Child-minding

6.Others
(please specify) ..

The Employer shall inform the
Helper and the Director of Immigration of any substantial changes in item
2,3 and 5 by serving a copy of the Revised Schedule of Accommodation and
Domestic Duties (ID 407G) signed by both the Empoyer and the Helper to the
Director of Immigration for the record.

Appendix B: Work Permit Conditions for Domestic
Workers in Singapore

1. The foreign worker shall work only
for the employer and in the occupation specified in the Work Permit/Visit Pass.

2. The foreign worker shall not
engage in or participate in any business or be a self-employed person.

3. If the foreign worker is a foreign
domestic worker, the foreign worker shall only perform household/domestic
duties and reside at the employer's residential address or residential premises
as stated in the Work Permit/Visit Pass.

4. The foreign worker shall reside at
the address stipulated by the employer upon the commencement of his/her
employment. The foreign worker is to inform the employer about any self-initiated
change in residential address.

5. The foreign worker shall undergo a
medical examination by a Singapore
registered doctor as and when directed by the Controller. If the foreign worker
is certified medically unfit, his/her Work Permit shall be revoked.

6. The foreign worker shall carry
his/her original Work Permit/Visit Pass with him/her at all times and must
produce it for inspection on demand by any public officer.

7. The foreign worker shall report to
the Controller as and when he/she is required by the Controller to do so.

Conduct

8. The foreign worker shall not go
through any form of marriage or apply to marry under any law, religion, custom
or usage with a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident in or outside
Singapore, without the prior approval of the Controller, while he/she holds a
Work Permit, and also after his/her Work Permit has expired or has been
cancelled or revoked.

9. If the foreign worker is a female
foreign worker, the foreign worker shall not become pregnant or deliver any child
in Singapore during the
validity of her Work Permit/Visit Pass, unless she is a Work Permit holder who
is already married to a Singapore
Citizen or Permanent Resident with the approval of the Controller. This
condition shall apply even after the work permit of the foreign worker has
expired or has been cancelled or revoked.

10. The foreign worker shall not
indulge or be involved in any illegal, immoral or undesirable activities,
including breaking up families in Singapore.

Appendix C:Abuses Documented by Human Rights Watch

Number of domestic
workers interviewed:65

Ages of
domestic workers interviewed:20-53

Because of
the limited time some domestic workers had to participate in an interview, a
few were unable to respond to all of the points below. Some women were still in
their debt repayment period and therefore could not answer questions about
whether they received their wages regularly. The numbers presented here most
likely under-represent the actual number of abuses against the sixty-five women
interviewed.

Working conditions and abuses experienced from a current or former
employer

Number of domestic workers

Reported
twelve or more hours of work per day

51

Reported
sixteen or more hours of work per day

32

Reported
one rest day per week

7

Reported
one to two rest days per month*

21

Reported
no rest days

31

Did not
receive full salary

12

Reported
verbal abuse or threats

33

Reported
physical abuse

13

Reported
sexual abuse

6

Reported
inadequate food

15

Restrictions
on leaving the workplace

29

Conditions
amounting to forced labor, debt bondage

15

* Several of
these workers reported receiving one rest day per month only after six months
to two years of employment.

Appendix D:Prosecution Cases for Salary Default

Name of FDW

Name of employer

Amount of unpaid
salary claimed (period)

Penalty

Date of Court order

FDW eventually paid
in full?

Achdaniah

Enilia Donohue

$3,580

(7 Sep 01 9 Aug 03)

$3,000 fine

05/08/2004

Yes ($3,580 paid)

Eli Mujiah Supardi

Jamilah Jafaar

$1863.67

(27 Jul 03 2 Nov 04)

$3,000 fine

24/02/2005

Yes ($1863.67 paid)

Fajar Iswahyni

Ng Chee Chin

$3680

(24 Dec 03 10 Nov 04)

$5,000 fine

Employer failed to pay fine and so served a default
sentence of 6 weeks' jail

03/03/2005

No; Employer could not pay and so served default jail
sentence of additional 4 weeks

Widarsih

Surayah Bte Samad

$3096

$5000 fine

Employer failed to pay fine and so served a default
sentence. Employer also served a 6 weeks' jail sentence for illegal
employment

10/03/2005

No; Employer could not pay and so served default jail
sentence of additional 4 weeks

Gemma Martinez
Neri

Yeo Chai Leng

$2783

$2000 fine

Employer failed to pay fine and so served a default
sentence of 10 days' jail

21/07/2005

No; Employer could not pay and so served default jail sentence
of additional 2 weeks

Data provided by e-mail correspondence from the Ministry of
Manpower, Singapore to Human Rights Watch on November 11, 2005.

[1]
International Labor Organization, Towards
a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in the Global Economy (Geneva:International Labor Organization, 2004), p. 7.These numbers refer to the total number of
migrant workers in receiving countries at a given point in time, including all
who had migrated prior to the date and are still inside the country. The flow
of migrant workers refers to the numbers going out of a sending country or
entering a receiving country during a particular period of time, usually a
year.Several limitations constrain
migration estimates, including high levels of undocumented migration, lack of
record keeping, restricted access to existing data, competing definitions of
migration, and difficulties aggregating across diverse sources of information.

[12]
For a country-by-country analysis of human rights violations against women and
government reforms targeting gender-based discrimination, see http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/reports.htm.
This site contains government submissions to the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) and the Committee's
concluding observations. The implementation of the main human rights treaties
under the United Nations human rights system is supervised by committees made
up of independent experts.The CEDAW
Committee monitors the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), G.A. Res. 34/180, U.N. Doc. A/34/46,
1979, entered into force September 3, 1981. State parties submit periodic
reports to the CEDAW committee about their compliance with the convention.
After review and dialogue with the government, the CEDAW committee issues
concluding observations and recommendations to state parties that acknowledge
reforms and highlight areas of continuing concern.

[14]
Ibid. According to the UNDP, Estimated earned income is roughly derived on the
basis of the ratio of the female nonagricultural wage to the male
non-agricultural wage, the female and male shares of the economically active
population, total female and male population and GDP per capita (PPP US$).
UNDP, "Definition of Statistical Terms," n.d. [online], http://hdr.undp.org/docs/statistics/understanding/definitions.pdf
(retrieved October 11, 2005).

[33]
E-mail correspondence from the Philippines Embassy to Human Rights Watch,
November 29, 2005 and information provided by fax by the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia,
Singapore,
May 31, 2005.

[34]
Human Rights Watch interview with diplomat, Sri Lankan High Commission, Singapore,
February 18, 2005. The official added, "There are three thousand other types of
workers, both men and women, so 15-16,000 [Sri Lankan] workers overall."

[35]
During the nineteenth century, elite Chinese households kept mui tsai, girls sold into a lifetime of
servitude. From the 1930s-70s, Cantonese women from the Pearl River Delta
region seeking work in domestic service became known as amahs and were well-known for their loyalty. Noorashikin Abdul
Rahman, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Shirlena Huang, "'Dignity Over Due:'
Transnational Domestic Workers in Singapore. Contemporary
Perspectives on Asian Women," Paper presented at Transnational Domestic Workers
Conference, National University of Singapore, February, 23-5, 2004.

[36]
"Live-in" domestic workers live with their employer, versus "live-out" domestic
workers who have separate living arrangements.

[72]
Ibid., part 23-4. The law states: "Any licensee who - (a) charges or receives
himself or through another person, for his services, any sum greater than the
prescribed fee; (b) knowingly and voluntarily deceives any person by giving
false information; (c) instigates or induces any person not to admit in his
service any worker who has not applied for employment, work or position through
his employment agency; or (d) knowingly sends, directs or takes any girl or
woman to any place for immoral purposes or to a place where she is likely to be
morally corrupted, shall be guilty of an offence." Penalties include fines up
to S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950] for repeat offenses and two years imprisonment for
prostituting women.

[73]
In this report, we used a currency conversion rate of S$1=U.S.$0.59, the rate
on October 16, 2005.

[74]
Ministry of Manpower, "Work Permit Application Form for a Domestic Worker,
First Schedule, Conditions of Work Permit for Employer of Foreign Domestic
Worker," [online], http://www.mom.gov.sg/Forms/
(retrieved November 16, 2005).

[82]Singapore
Const, art. XII, 1 and
Universal Declaration of Human Rights G.A. Res. 217A (III), U.N. GAOR, 3d.
Sess., pt. 1 at 71, U.N. Doc. A/810 (1948), art. 7. The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR) is the precursor of important international treaties
that set forth human rights. As a member of the United Nations, Singapore has
committed to uphold the UDHR. See also, International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976,
art. 26.

[83]
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW), G.A. Res. 34/180, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, 1979, entered into force
September 3, 1981, ratified by Singapore
on October 5, 1995. Singapore
entered a reservation to article 2, which prohibits discrimination against
women, when it affects the practice of religious and personal laws. They also
reserved the right to impose restrictions on the employment of women related to
perceived health and safety concerns for pregnant women.

[84]
CEDAW, art. 2; ICCPR, arts. 2 and 3; International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), entered into force
January 3, 1976, art. 2; Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Migrant Workers' Convention),
adopted on December 18, 1992, U.N. G.A. Res. 45/158, entered into force July 1,
2003, art. 1.

[85]
UDHR, art. 2; ICCPR, art. 2(1):"Each
State Party to the Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all
individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights
recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or other status."See also, CEDAW, art. 1; and the Migrant
Workers Convention), art. 7.

[88]
Some have argued that because domestic workers have responsibilities for child
care or preparing meals that do not fit in a standard eight-hour workday, they
should not be regulated by limits on their working hours.Although their hours may be flexible, there
should be limits on the maximum hours of work they perform each week, with
provisions for overtime pay.Furthermore,
the requirements of many other jobs, such as health care providers, waiters,
and pilots, do not fit the standard eight-hour workday model, yet workers in
these jobs are still covered under domestic employment protections.

[107]
Sim Chi Yin, "Storm over a headline," The
New Paper, June 13, 2005 and information provided by fax by Ayodhia Kalake,
Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, Hong Kong, June 2, 2005 and
June 6, 2005.

[108]
Ibid., and information provided by fax by Fachry Sulaiman, first secretary,
Protocol and Consular Affairs, Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Singapore,
May 31, 2005.

[118]
As discussed in the section, "Work Permit and Immigration Regulations,"
the government requires that employers take out a S5,000 security bond which
they lose if the domestic worker runs away. This policy attempts to curb the
incidence of work permit holders abandoning their jobs and becoming illegal
migrants,

[158]
Some domestic workers may be charged less than this range, and others more.
This range represents Human Rights Watch's main findings from field interviews
with domestic workers, employment agents, labor-sending countries' diplomatic
missions, and migrant workers' advocates.

[159]
Human Rights Watch interview with Margarita Ramos (not her real name), Filipina
domestic worker, age twenty-six, Singapore, March 2, 2005. After
paying recruitment fees in the Philippines,
one Filipina domestic worker thought she would start receiving a salary once
she starting working. Only when she arrived in Singapore she learned "that S$1200
[U.S.$708] goes to the agency.My salary
was S$270 [U.S.$159], they deducted S$200 [U.S.$118].Fifty dollars [U.S.$30] of my salary I saved
for my air ticket to go home and for six months I only received S$20
[U.S.$12]," Human Rights Watch interview with Michelle Udarbe (not her real
name), Filipina domestic worker, age forty-two, Singapore, February 23, 2005.

[163]
Human Rights Watch interview with domestic worker insurance agent, Singapore,
February 28, 2005.He added, "[If
employers pay] they will be more prepared to compromise.They take her back, call her stupid, get a
replacement.If they don't get a
replacement, they go to another agent, it's a free market.I will value her because I paid 1500."

[179]
International Labor Conference, 1979 General Survey of the Reports relating to
the Forced Labor Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Abolition of Forced Labor
Convention, 1975, (No. 105), Report of the Committee of Experts on the
Application of Conventions and Recommendations, 65th Session, Geneva, 1979,
Report III, para. 21.

[187]
Freedom to organize is one of the four core labor rights identified by the
International Labor Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work (ILO Declaration). According to the ILO Declaration, all ILO
members, including Singapore,
"have an obligation arising from the very fact of membership in the
Organization to respect, to promote and to realize, in good faith and in
accordance with the Constitution, the principles concerning the fundamental
rights."International Labour
Conference, ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 86th
Session, Geneva,
June 18,1998.

[188]
ILO Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (Convention
No. 98), 1949, ratified by Singapore
October 10, 1965.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women
has stated, "In the context of norms recently established by the international
community, a State that does not act against crimes of violence against women
is as guilty as the perpetrators. States are under a positive duty to prevent,
investigate and punish crimes associated with violence against women."Special Rapporteur on violence against women,
its causes and consequences, "Preliminary Report Submitted by the Special
Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika
Coomaraswamy, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution
1994/45," (Fiftieth Session), U.N Document E/CN.4/1995/42, November 22, 1994, para.
72.

[286]
UDHR, art. 18.The right is also
articulated in Article 18 of ICCPR, Article 12 of the Migrant Workers
Convention, Article 14 of the CRC, and in the U.N. Declaration on the
Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion
or Belief.ICCPR, art. 18; Migrant
Workers Convention, art. 12; Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, U.N.G.A. Res.
36/55, November 25, 1981.

[303]
The cost of an abortion can range from $S300-S$1000 [U.S.$177-590].

[304]
ICESCR, art. 12(1)."The States Parties
to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health."The Committee on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights has established that states have obligations "to adopt legislation
or to take other measures ensuring equal access to health care and
health-related services.States should
also ensure that third parties do not limit people's access to health-related
information and services.Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The
right to the highest attainable standard of living (General Comments), General
Comment 14, August 11, 2000, U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, para. 35.The Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights is a body of independent international experts charged with
monitoring the implementation of the Covenant in each ratifying state.To aid the ratifying states in the
implementation of their obligations under the Covenant, the Committee issues
general comments which are widely recognized as authoritative interpretations
of the rights set forth in the Covenant.

[306]
CEDAW, art. 16(e) and ICESCR, art. 12. "The human rights of women include their
right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related
to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion,
discrimination and violence."United
Nations General Assembly, Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action: Fourth World
Conference on Women, U.N. Doc. A/Conf.177/20, New York, October 17, 1995 (Beijing Platform
for Action), para. 95.

[327]
The Association of Banks in Singapore,
"What is GIRO?" n.d. [online], http://www.abs.org.sg/interbankgiro.htm
(retrieved October 14, 2005). "GIRO was set up in 1987 as an electronic direct
debit mechanism used by billing organisations (BOs) as a low cost means to
collect payments. GIRO ia a tripartite mechansim between billing organisations,
customers and the bank."

[332]
For example, an official from the Sri Lanka High Commission explained: "We try
to settle disputes amicably.If we can
sort it out then and there, the workers go to the agents.If they are unhelpful or unsuccessful, then
it goes to MOM.The one advantage the
embassies are given is the opportunity to stop the cancellation of the work
permit.We are given one month.If it's sorted out then good, or we request
to have her transferred her out or sent home. If the case is referred to MOM
[the Ministry of Manpower], we write the employer or call the employer.If they don't show up, it stops there.If the
employer comes, we negotiate a settlement." Human Rights Watch interview with
diplomat, Sri Lanka High Commission, Singapore, February 18, 2005.

[342]
Programs have included promoting best practices by giving annual awards to the
"Best Foreign Domestic Worker" and "Best Employer." An exploratory trip to Cambodia by an
AEAS delegation to investigate new "markets" for domestic workers demonstrated
continuing stereotypes about ideal workers. The perceived strengths of
Cambodian workers, according to one delegation member, included their height,
obedience, mild temperaments, and dark complexions. AEAS, "2nd
Anniversary Dinner and Dance 2005 Program," March 4, 2005, p. 51.

[345]
For a more detailed discussion of Asian governments response to ratifying the
Migrant Workers Convention, see Nicola Piper and Robyn Iredale, "Identification
of the Obstacles to The Signing and Ratification of The UN Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers 1990: The Asia Pacific
Perspective," Asia Pacific Migration Research Network Working Paper No. 14,
2004.